


A MEETING OF STRANGERS

by Ceala (DecemberWine)



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-02-26
Updated: 2011-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-15 23:24:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 33,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/165956
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DecemberWine/pseuds/Ceala
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is an AU.  Michael and Brian have never met (or have they?)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

“Mr. Novotny.”

Michael turned away from the chalkboard at the sound of his name. He tried hard not to smile at the little hazel-eyed ball of energy called Gus Kinney. Although Michael managed to maintain a professional attitude it was really hard not to have favorites and Gus was ‘teacher’s pet’ for sure which meant Michael was always extra careful when he spoke with him.

“What is it Gus?”

“Why do you call them ‘joining prepositions’?”

“Well Gus, do you remember the definition of a preposition?”

“Yeah…it’s something that’s placed before.”

“Before what, Gus?”

“Before a noun, verb or adjective.”

“That’s very good. I’ll tell you what. How about I show you instead of just telling you?”

The whole class perked up. This was the very reason why Mr. Novotny was the favorite teacher at Greater Pittsburgh Elementary School. He never lectured. He got into the lessons he taught his students and made them fun.

“Okay, Jeff you come up here. Now Jeff, you are a house so what does that make you?”

Jeff grinned at him and said, “I’m a noun.”

“Indeed you are big man one of the very best nouns of all. Now, Larry, step up to the front. Larry, you are lives so what are you?”

“Uhhhh, I’m a verb?”

“Is that a question?”

“No sir, I’m a verb!”

“You certainly are a verb Larry and fine verb you are. Now I’m Michael so we have Michael, lives and house. Is that a sentence?”

The whole class let out a resounding ‘NO’. “What would make it a sentence?”

Again it was a unanimous ‘PREPOSITIONS’.

“By George I think you’ve got it. You need prepositions to join these words together into a complete sentence. No Gus, give someone else a chance. Jenny, give me a preposition that would make this a sentence.”

Jenny was a very shy pretty little girl who was smart but seemed content to let everyone else shine instead of her. Finally she said softly “How about ‘in’?”

“How about ‘in’? I like that. Come right up here Miss Jenny. Where do you think you should stand in our sentence?”

“I should be right after Larry.”

“Okay, we put you right here between Larry and Jeff. So now we have Michael lives in house. Do we have a sentence?”

Again there was a loud ‘NO’.

“It sounds to me like we need one more preposition. How about you Carol? Can you give me a preposition that would make us a real sentence?”

Carol stood up and smiled at her favorite teacher. “Either ‘his’ or ‘the’.”

Michael smiled back at the happy little girl. “You got it. Come up here young lady. Where do you go?”

“I go right before Jeff!”

“Here we are girls and boys. Michael lives in the house or Michael lives in his house. So now do you all understand how prepositions can join verbs, nouns and adjectives together to make complete and understandable sentences?”

The whole class let out a ‘YES’ that almost rattled the windows. Just then the bell went off. Michael yelled at his happy students, “Don’t forget Monday we are having a test on prepositions so enjoy this weekend but study a little too.”

As usual, his students almost smothered him before they left his class. Like I said, he was their favorite teacher. When he finally peeled off his last sixth grader, he looked up and saw his best friend Tracy Blake standing in the doorway waiting patiently for all the little rug rats to get out of the way. He grinned at her and waved her in.

“Hey Trace, give me just a few minutes to pack up and then we’ll blow this popsicle stand for the open road.”

Tracy grinned back at him and said, “Yeah well as open as the road is between here and my place that is.”

“Ah Tracy but your place is my place and vice-versa…Right?”

“Right!”

It sounds like Tracy and Michael live together and in a sense they do. Actually their housing arrangement involves one of the most unusual houses in Pittsburgh; hell, maybe the whole damn state. Michael had never seen anything like the house he shared with Tracy and two of his closest friends, Emmett Honeycutt and Ted Schmidt.

From the outside it looked like a quadplex. They all had the same address with the addition of Apartment ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ or ‘D’ added. Once you walked through the front door of each unit, you were in what appeared to be a small foyer with a living room just beyond. There were other doors that led off to bedrooms, bathrooms and kitchens. But what made this so unique was that the ‘living room’ was actually just a sitting room and one of the doors opened into a communal living area and kitchen; sort of a huge great room and an open concept kitchen. Michael’s Uncle Vic had suggested he look at the place and when Michael first saw the property he almost fell over.

“What the hell is this Uncle Vic? I’ve never, ever seen anything like this.”

“This was designed by a friend of mine back in the days when you could be fired without cause if it was even suspected you were gay. He was deeply in love with a young man who like you was a teacher. Teachers’ and preachers have it really bad if it’s known they are of the “gay persuasion”.”

The air quotes around “gay persuasion” were almost visible.

“He wanted to live with his lover and have a life together but if he did, they could both lose their jobs and be with no means of income at all. He came up with this. He and his lover had separate addresses and telephone numbers. If anyone from the non-gay community came over to their place, they were invited into the living room and if they asked to see the rest of the apartment, they were shown a lovely large bedroom and bath. They always said the kitchen was off limits because it was dirty. No one ever knew about the communal great room where my friend and his lover actually lived their lives. It was originally designed to be a duplex but another ‘gay’ couple heard about their plans and went in with them and the quad was built.”

Michael was intrigued with the building, he bought it outright and it became his home. Where did he get the money? Well, let’s just say that Michael Novotny was keeping so many secrets the sheer weight of all of them was about to crush him. You’ll find out about all of them eventually but for now, let’s just concentrate on the housing situation.

When Emmett’s apartment was torched as a result of a drag queen dispute (not with him, they just happened to live on the same floor), Michael invited him to take one of the units. Emmett was completely thrilled. He had adored Michael almost from the moment they first met at the Liberty Diner. At the time, Emmett was brand new to Pittsburgh, fresh off the bus from Hazelhurst, Mississippi. He had been adopted almost immediately by Godiva, the reigning ‘queen’ of Liberty Avenue. She took turns treating him like a lover, a son, a toy, a pet and sometimes an out and out slave. Like Emmet said, life with Godiva was never boring. Godiva loved the diner and held court there in the big round corner booth. Michael’s mother worked at the diner and he was there a lot so of course the two young men got acquainted almost immediately. They became good friends. Michael was an only child with no father. Emmett was from a huge family with lots of kids. Michael wanted a brother badly and Emmett missed his brothers just as badly so a lasting bond was forged that just got stronger with the years.

The third partner, Ted Schmidt, was the odd man out. Ted was almost 9 years older than Michael and Emmett but socially, he was years their junior. Ted was the most insecure man either of them had ever met. It was months before they finally decided for sure he was actually gay. He was not a bad looking man, slight like Michael with large dark eyes and dark brown hair. When you looked past the dull grey, brown and blue cotton shirts he always wore, he had a good physique and like so many gay men, he worked out regularly. Ted was an accountant with a prestigious firm in downtown Pittsburgh. He made good money but always seemed to be lost. It was almost a no-brainer to invite him to share one of the apartments.

Their fourth member, Tracy Blake, had been Michael’s best friend from the moment she planted a big kiss on him at Miss Roseanne’s Day Care Center. He was barely five years old and his mother had just gotten hired on as a waitress at the Liberty Diner. Because she was a single mother (his father had died in the Vietnam War) she had no one to care for him while she was working. Michael was small for his age, completely unused to being around anyone but his mother and once in a great while his Uncle Vic plus he suffered from asthma and had to keep his inhalers close at all times. He was ripe for the picking and every single kid in the day care center decided to pick on him. They had reduced him to a shaking, sobbing mess in almost no time; that is until Tracy was dropped off by her single mother. Tracy was born to be the first female president of the US. She walked into the day care, took one look at what was going on and dropped the seven year old who’d been tormenting Michael with one well placed kick in the ass. Then she went over, picked Michael up off the floor and wiped his face off with some of the Kleenex that were scattered all over the large room. When she got all the tears and snot cleaned up, she gave him a huge kiss and then informed the entire room full of kids and care-takers that Michael was her boyfriend and anyone who messed with him would be dealing with her. No one wanted to cross Miss Tracy. Michael, needless to say fell in love at once and forever.

They went through school together and the constant love and support Michael got from Tracy brought him out of his shell. The fact that he was good with words and had an engaging personality helped him to gain confidence. He never would be big and tall but as he matured, it was quite evident that he was going to be a really good-looking kid and then a handsome young man. He grew out of the asthma only needing his inhaler when he was exhausted or under great stress and began a regimen of exercise that developed and strengthened his body. By the time, he hit the twelfth grade the girls were fighting over him. Tracy was no dummy either and the two of them both won scholarships to Carnegie-Mellon University right there in Pittsburgh. So for them, college was just a continuation of their normal lives except for one small thing. In college, Michael discovered that what had been a niggling suspicion was a full-fledged reality. Michael was gay.

He’d always been a little confused about his feelings. He adored Tracy there was no doubt of that and they were always hugging and kissing. He almost could not be near her without wanting to touch her somehow. But beyond some pretty hot, steamy, French kissing, their relationship had never gone any further. Michael knew about homo-sexuality first hand and not just from sex-education classes in school. His beloved Uncle Vic was gay. His mother was completely accepting of her younger brother and his alternate life style. Michael had grown up seeing men hugging, kissing and holding hands. He thought nothing of it. His Uncle answered any questions Michael had with no embarrassment or reservations so Michael was well informed of the dangers and the joys of man-on-man loving. The dangers were never as evident as the horrible week-end Vic sat Michael down and told him he was HIV positive. He had the virus and he could develop AIDS. At the time, Vic was still healthy but there wasn’t a lot known about AIDS treatment. Not much was known about the disease and it didn’t help that almost 40,000 people had died of AIDS before President Reagan could bring himself to use the term in public. It wasn’t until Rock Hudson announced that he had AIDS and was going to France for treatment that it became ‘OKAY’ to talk about HIV in public.

Michael’s puzzlement came more from what he didn’t feel than what he did. While he had never had crushes on a male teacher or acquaintance, he did feel a funny tingling when he saw certain men. Sometimes he would notice construction workers without their shirts and feel his breath catch in his throat. But it was never a ‘stop the world’ type feeling. He also, despite his popularity with the girls in his school, never felt an over-whelming urge to get in their pants. Thank God, he always had Tracy as an excuse for why he never tried to score with the girls. He just let everyone think he was so crazy for her he couldn’t see anyone else. She knew exactly what he was doing and helped the masquerade on by making everyone think she was insanely jealous of her cute, smart boy friend. Tracy probably knew Michael was gay long before he did.

Michael had his first sexual experience with anyone, male or female in college. His roommate was a jock but not Thank God, an obnoxious jock. He was there on a football scholarship and he was a damned good running back. He was also smart enough to realize the odds of becoming a famous professional player were slim and none so he concentrated on his studies just as much as he did his practice. He helped Michael with his math and Michael helped him with his English and Social Studies. One night, they had both been cramming like mad for mid-terms. They decided to take a break and go out for beer and a pizza and some fresh air. They were so tired they had a few too many beers and were a little unsteady on their feet by the time they got back to their dorm.

They managed to get each other up the stairs with a little help from some of their class mates who thought they were hilarious trying to go up the stairs together. They kept getting their feet mixed up and falling on the steps. Their friends finally stopped laughing long enough to get them up the stairs and into their room before they killed themselves. They dumped them on one of the beds, told them to get some sleep and left them alone. Michael and Riley, his roommate, tried to get untangled but finally decided, what the hell, they were comfortable just like they were and went to sleep. When they woke up the next morning, Riley was wrapped around Michael with his hand down the front of his unzipped jeans and inside his briefs. He was holding Michael’s cock in his hand. That could have been disastrous had it not been for the fact that Michael had his hand firmly over Riley’s holding him tight against him. When they woke, Michael turned over to face Riley. They looked at each other for a long moment and then slowly kissed. Both were breathless and surprised when they broke apart.

“Uh Mike, I’m not sure what to say to you right now.”

“Then don’t say anything Riley. We need to get ready for our tests and we don’t have much time. Let’s table this for now and talk about it later when we have the time. Okay?”

“Sounds fine to me.”

The two rolled away from each other, headed for the showers and went about their daily business. But all day long, Michael kept feeling Riley’s big warm hand holding his cock and he had this silly little smile on his face. He had no idea that Riley was thinking about how warm and silky Michael felt in his hand and how sweet his lips were even with morning breath to contend with. They took their exams, they laughed and joked with their friends, they all went out that night to celebrate the last of the mid-terms. When they got back to their room, they smiled shyly at each other and went to bed with just a soft ‘good night’ between them. Things went on like this until the day their grades were posted. They took their turn standing in line to get up to the board to see what they’d scored and when they saw their two ‘A’s, they both turned to each other with huge grins and did some high fives. They got out of the way of the rest of the eager students waiting to see their fate and headed out of the building.

“Do you want to go get some lunch Riley?”

“No, I want to go back to our place and talk.”

Michael felt his heart fall down into his shoes. He swallowed the large amount of saliva that was threatening to choke him and managed to sound reasonably normal when he said, okay that was fine by him. They walked across the campus toward their dorm building, neither one saying anything. Occasionally Michael would look at Riley and then look away when Riley caught his eyes and then it would be the other man’s turn. The house was completely quiet when they got there. Most of the other occupants were either out celebrating or drowning their sorrows. They went up to their room and Michael couldn’t help but feel a little pang of worry when Riley turned the lock on their door. Michael told him this was his idea so he should start the conversation.

Riley sat down on his bed and took a few deep breaths then he turned to Michael and said, “I’m hoping the fact that you haven’t tried to move out or report me means that you don’t completely hate me for what happened.”

Michael was surprised and it showed. “Why in the world would I hate you Riley? We were both sound asleep and we’d had way too much to drink. Besides if I rightly remember, my hand was on top.”

Riley smiled at him. “Yeah it was and God it felt so good.”

“Are you telling me that you liked waking up that way?”

“I liked waking up that way with you, Mike. How did you feel about it?”

“I have to say, I really liked waking up that way with you too. So where do we go from here?”

“I think we have to, well I mean I want to see what’s between us. How about you?”

“I think I want to see what’s between us also.”

Riley let out a big sigh of relief. “Thank God, I don’t know what I would have done if you’d said you never wanted me to touch you again because all I’ve thought about for the last couple of days is how you felt in my hand. How soft your skin was and how good you smelled and how much I did not want to move from that spot.”

“You know, we do need some stuff if we really decide to explore this.”

“What do we need besides a condom?”

“Well we need lube and I have a feeling we might need more than one condom.”

“Oh my god, I just got so damn hard from you saying that I don’t think I can stand up without hurting myself.”

Michael smiled at his about to be more than roommate and said, “Come on big man, tough it out, play through the hurt like your coach is always saying. Let’s divide and conquer. I’ll get the lube since I at least have an idea of what kind we’ll need and you go get the condoms and we’ll meet back here when we get through.”

“Michael?”

“Yeah Riley.”

“Can we just sort of fool around for a few minutes first?”

“It could be dangerous you know this fooling around.”

“I’m more than willing to take the risk.”

Michael walked over to the bed and straddled Riley’s lap. He put his arms on his shoulders and leaned into him and gently pressed his lips against the other mans. Riley let out a strangled moan and put his arms around Michael. He kissed him back with a lot of enthusiasm. He fell back and to the side which put them both up on the bed. He let Michael pull his leg out from under him and then he pulled him into his hard body and they both just gave into the urge to touch and feel and explore. When Michael felt Riley’s hands on his belt, he pulled back and panted at him, “Oh no you don’t. We don’t go any further until we have protection.”

Riley was panting also. “I do have a condom in my wallet.”

Michael said, “So do I but do you know how two men have sex together?”

“Yeah, I know.”

“Well then you know it can hurt. It can hurt a lot and I don’t intend to have either one of us going to the clinic with rectal tears. It would be all over campus before we got our pants pulled up and that’s not going to happen. If we’re really going to do this, then we’re going to do it right and take care of each other.”

“Michael, don’t you want me?”

“Good God yes I want you. Do you really think I’ve got this raging hard on just for the fun of it? Of course I want you but I want all of you and I don’t want to hold back. This is my first time to have sex and I want it to be something I remember for the rest of my life.”

Riley, leaned his head down on Michael’s shoulder and said, “Christ for a little guy you have the biggest balls. Come on then, get off me and stay away from me until we’re both back here and have that door barricaded with a dresser. Because I’m not getting out of this bed for anything once I finally have you naked and in my arms.”

Michael pulled Riley’s head up and planted a blazing, breathtaking kiss on his eager mouth. “Let’s go big man.”


	2. Chapter 2

Michael did remember every single thing about his first time for the rest of his life. He got back to the room after Riley who was literally walking the floor waiting for him. When he opened the door he could see Riley almost wilt with relief.

“I thought maybe you’d changed your mind and ran for your life.”

“Never. I just decided I would go to a drugstore off campus to get the lube; just in case you know.”

Michael threw the extra large tube of Astroglide down on the desk and took his jacket off and hung it in the closet. “Were you serious about barricading the door or do you think just the lock will be enough?”

“I think we’ll set the chair under the knob, just to be on the safe side.”

Riley walked over and picked up his desk chair and wedged it under the door knob. Then he turned back and caught his breath when he saw that Michael had taken off his shirt and pulled his belt out of his jeans. He walked over to Michael and put his arms around him. He pulled the smaller man up against his strong body and just held him for a moment. Then he pulled back and smiled at Michael who was just watching him with a small smile on his face. He started walking backwards until he reached his bed. He sat down and pulled Michael between his legs and as close to him as he could get.

“Let me do that. I’ve dreamed for quite a while about undressing you. Watching that beautiful skin of yours turn pink. Watching your nipples get hard and thinking about what it was going to be like sucking on them. “

By now Michael was breathing a little harder and the nipples in question were standing up under his thin t-shirt. Riley pushed the t-shirt up Michael’s body and as the tempting stubs were exposed he fastened his mouth on one and began to suck and rub the nub back and forth between his teeth. Michael hissed sharply and Riley let go at once.

“Did I hurt you?”

“God no you didn’t hurt me. I just never knew a man’s nipples were sensitive like women’s are.”

“Umm. Does that mean you liked it then?”

“Oh yeah I really liked it. I think my dick is trying to applaud and yell Bravo.”

Riley grinned at Michael and pulled the t-shirt over his head and threw it somewhere in their room. He took the other nipple in his mouth and began to eagerly suck on it. He pulled back and blew air across the wet flesh and watched it pebble up. He hummed with satisfaction and started sucking again.

Michael was just amazed. He’d thought for sure the first time they would both just go right for the cock and get it over but now that Riley knew Michael was in this with him, he seemed determined to try every single wet dream he’d ever had. Michael decided that was fine with him. He just hoped he was still sane enough to make sure they didn’t hurt each by the time they got down to the real thing.

By the time Michael’s eager roommate had gotten his pants and briefs off, Michael realized there was a certain inequity to their situation and he decided to even the playing field. He shoved Riley hard and he landed on his back on the bed.

Michael began to remove his clothes. Riley blinked at him trying to get control of himself. One minute he’d been about to latch onto Mike’s gorgeous hard cock and the next thing he knew, he was flat on his back with a very determined naked partner concentrating on removing his clothes as quickly as possible. He finally managed to grab Michaels hand as he was about to rip his jeans and briefs off and asked him what was going on. Michael grinned at him, jerked his hand loose and bared Riley completely with one hard pull.

“I’m not going to be the only naked man in the room. This is an equal opportunity relationship; that means if my cock is waving in the wind so the hell is yours.”

Michael climbed up on top of Riley and began to lick his cock; first just around the rim of the head and then he took the head in his mouth and gently sucked. By the time he’d managed to get a few inches in his mouth, his over-stimulated partner lost all control and shot his load right in Michael’s mouth. He was surprised and Riley was almost incoherent. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do but remembered a line from an old movie he’d seen. The girl had asked her brother for some dating advice and he’d said ‘swallow’. So Michael swallowed.

It wasn’t nearly as gross as he’d expected it would be. It was actually sort of salty and almost like breathing in sea breezes loaded with water. He waited in limbo. His cock was hard and throbbing with need but Riley was obviously not in any condition to return the favor.

Finally Michael decided ‘what the hell’. He told his almost lover to turn over and began to prepare him. He did everything he remembered his Uncle Vic telling him about how to make love to a man. He used his fingers and lots of lube to stretch the opening. He wasn’t too sure if he’d be able to stick his fingers up another guy’s ass but he found it was exciting and the sounds coming from his most willing partner only added to the build-up. When he got the third finger in and was able to move his fingers apart and all around, he also hit something inside that was obviously Riley’s on-switch. He looked over his shoulder at Michael and told him for Gods’ sake to put something in there bigger than his fingers and do it right now. Michael did and found that he was indeed gay.

Fucking a man was amazing; lights, bells, whistles and fireworks all at the same time. The best thing of all; he did not have to hold back anything. As big as Riley was, there was no way Michael could overpower him so he just let go and pounded away until he felt himself coming apart. His first orgasm as a result of intercourse and not just hand action was one for the books. He didn’t remember sinking down on top of his lover but sometime later he realized Riley was trying to move him.

He slipped off to one side and carefully pulled out grabbing the rubber to keep it from spilling all over the bed. He gently rubbed Riley’s back and when he had his wind back, he asked him if he was all right. Riley sort of hummed at him. Michael rose up and looked at his bed partner. He was laying there with this stupid shit-eating grin on his face.

“Hey, Riley…are you okay buddy? Did I hurt you?”

“Ummm.”

“That’s not giving me much information.”

“MMkay.”

Michael leaned a little further over the almost dead body next to him and ran his hand down Riley’s side to his groin. When he slipped his hand around the juncture where the leg meets the torso he felt warm, slick wetness. Now that was information he could process. Things must have gone the way they were supposed to because his partner had another pretty impressive ejaculation. Score one, no two, score two for the little guy.

The rest of the week-end was pretty close to perfection. They only left their room for quick trips to the bathroom or equally quick journeys out of the dorm to get some food. Both of them were more than ready when they got back to their safe haven and a trip anywhere or any sort of separation usually meant another hot bout of sex. There was only one small thing that Michael would have liked to change.

He almost had to threaten Riley to make him do the topping. All his aggression was reserved for the playing field. Because of his size and strength, he was very passive and always wanted Michael to be the one to penetrate him. At first, Michael just wanted to experience every single part of man-on-man sex he could but after the first time being a bottom, he realized that was his natural preference. Unfortunately, it was also Riley’s.

The two roommates were so happy with their new arrangement that Michael decided he could live with the situation the way it was as long as Riley switched off occasionally. The rest of their first semester was spent in a glow of sex, exploration and school work. When they parted at the end of the school year, Riley was a basket case. He didn’t think he could stand being away from Michael for almost four months and was scared to death Michael would not want him when they started their next semester. Michael reassured him over and over that he was not going to be out looking for strange stuff. He had a summer job lined up and he was going to be working 10 hour days at his Uncle Vic’s restaurant to get money for the next school year. He finally had to push Riley out the door of their room and even then he came back again for one last kiss.

Their second school year was a repeat of their first except between Michael’s grades and Riley’s skill on the playing field, they managed to score a much nicer, bigger room with their own bathroom instead of the common room they’d had previously. That gave them the opportunity to add shower sex to their list of favorites. When they ended their second year, it wasn’t quite as traumatic as the first. By now, Riley was sure that Michael wasn’t looking to drop him every time some good looking guy caught his eye.

It was sort of ironic that when they met at the start of their third year, Michael realized almost immediately that Riley had strayed. It took a lot of talking and reassuring before Riley was finally able to tell Michael he’d met someone back home and it was serious. Michael was surprised to discover his main emotion was relief. Riley asked him to please continue to room with him but they just had to leave off the sex. Michael was more than willing and over the next few months, he managed to get the whole story out of his roommate. Riley wasn’t as dense about their relationship as Michael thought he was.

He knew, Michael was a bottom and wasn’t really getting all he wanted from their sex games. The guy he’d met at home was strictly a top and very much in control at all times. For a guy as big as he was, Riley really just wanted someone to take care of him. His new lover did just that. They got along just fine.

Riley did not return to Carnegie for his fourth year. He choose to transfer to the University of Alabama. Michael was a little relieved. This left him completely free to do what he wanted and he found that what he wanted was to share an apartment off campus with Tracy. He’d not spent as much time as he wanted with her during his liaison with Riley and he missed her like crazy. She was the all powerful Earth Mother and welcomed him home with open arms.

They had no secrets from each other. She had known all about Riley almost from the first touch to the last. She told Michael about her guys and he told her about his guys. They had a lot in common. They both graduated with honors. Tracy wanted to become a lawyer but Michael had enough of formal education for a while and finally took a job with the Carnegie Library as a researcher. The pay was better than average and he loved tracking down the history of the donations the library received on a daily basis.

One day while going through a box of old photos, Michael ran across a picture of a man; the most beautiful man he’d ever seen. Even in the stiff poses favored by photographers in the late 1800’s the man’s sexual languor shown through the old sepia tones. His hair was dark but his eyes had a light cast to them. Michael thought they might either be light brown or maybe hazel. His body under the stiff suits of the period was enough to make a gay boy’s mouth water and Michael was almost drooling. He immediately made the picture the focus of the most intensive research he’d ever attempted. In the end, Michael’s fascination with the photo set him up for life.

He remembered with absolute clarity, the day he found the last piece of the puzzle. He had been so excited. There was a special program for the researchers. If they discovered something they felt was extraordinary, they could submit their idea to the library selection committee. If their idea was picked, they could design their exhibit and they got a $500.00 bonus. Michael was sure he'd found something that would be ideal.

The beautiful man in the photo was Brian Halloran. He was the younger brother of one of Pittsburgh’s earliest entrepreneurs. His brother, Jacob, was a grim, serious man who was determined to be someone important. He apprenticed to a local green-grocer learning the business from the ground up. He saved every single penny and at complete odds with his personality, he was a hell of a good poker player so he amassed a lot of money gambling. He took every cent he had and bought out his employer. Then he proceeded to set the town of Pittsburgh on its ear. He completely remodeled the store making it clean and full of light. He designed vignette’s showing how materials and furniture and candles went together to make a beautiful setting. The women of Pittsburgh almost begged him to take their money. Since he also had fine cigars and wine and certain goodies for the men, they didn’t mind their women shopping at ‘Halloran’s’ at all.

By the time Jacob was 47 he was a millionaire with 4 stores carrying his name. He called them simply ‘East Halloran’, ‘West Halloran’, ‘South Halloran’ and ‘North Halloran’. It didn’t matter what he called them, he couldn’t seem to do anything wrong when it came to business. He decided at 47, he needed a wife to cement his position in Pittsburgh society. He picked a 19 year old beauty from a good but poor family. He courted the young lady by making sure her family knew they would be set for life if she became Mrs. Jacob Halloran. She had been raised to be a show wife and nothing more so the situation was perfect. He provided her with a lovely home. She ran the home and threw parties that drew all the very best of Pittsburgh’s high society.

The final piece of the puzzle Michael had discovered was Jacob's personal journal. He noted in his journal that twice a week religiously, he would go to his wife’s bedroom, embrace her, squeeze her breasts, screw her, thank her and retire to his own room. He made sure she knew he expected an heir. But for the first year of their marriage there was not a sign of a baby.

Towards the end of their first year of marriage, Jacob received word that his brother Brian was losing his family. When Jacob and Brian’s parent died, Brian was 3 and Jacob was 27. He didn’t have the patience or the knowledge to care for a 3 year old so he found a respectable well liked older couple and turned Brian over to them. The situation worked out well for everyone. The couple loved the lively, handsome little boy as though he was their own and they raised him to be a stunning, intelligent young man. Now the husband only had weeks to live and the wife had passed on the year before. Brian was going to be on his own. He was 23 now and had a brilliant education so Jacob decided he could use him in his business and he made arrangement for his brother to come live with him; him and his new young wife.

Yeah, Yeah, I can hear you all right now, talk about a pattern for disaster. I said Jacob was a brilliant business man, I didn’t say a word about his skills as a human being.

Jacob was almost human in his excitement when 6 months after his brother joined him his wife announced she was with child. Brian had made some enormous changes to the Halloran stores which only enhanced their business. He brought in famous chefs to do cooking demonstrations and the sales of exotic edibles and fancy cookware and table settings went through the roof. He opened a fresh flower department in the four stores and soon they were the place in town for weddings, parties and that special something when a husband wanted to surprise his wife. Jacob felt his life was almost complete. It would be perfection when his son was born.

He had no idea he was the butt of every lewd joke in the thriving metropolis of Pittsburgh. Even the miners who never had or ever would set foot in one of his stores was laughing at his pride in his young wife and his baby brother. They weren’t even trying to hide their affair anymore. Of course the whole thing ended in tragedy.

When Jacob realized he was being cuckolded by his own brother, he went to the hardware section of his store, got himself an axe and went looking for Brian. Brian was warned. He was a lot more liked than Jacob and no one wanted to see him surprised. He was waiting for Jacob with his own axe. They chopped each other to bits. Jacob died in the street, Brian died in the arms of the beautiful young wife who sold the stores and left Pittsburgh never to be seen or heard from again.

Michael felt his idea had everything; sex, violence, money and it was a fascinating peek into life in Pittsburgh in the mid to late 1800's. He had pictures of all the main characters, photos of the stores, he'd even found some old newspaper ads that showed the vignettes designed by Jacob and the floral arrangements Brian had created. He was sure he would win. Unfortunately the selection committee was as dry and dusty as the archives Michael had dug through to find all his supporting documents. They felt the exhibit was too violent for the Carnegie Library. They vetoed his idea and marked all his data to be sold at auction.

Michael was furious and sad and crushed to see the hours of work he'd put in dismissed with so little thought. He decided he would get even. He carefully packaged all the data making sure the driest, dullest items were on the top and sent the boxes off to the auction. Then he bought all his research work at the auction. He got the entire three boxes for $78.00. He took his prize home and lugged it into the small apartment he shared with Tracy. He’d just sat there on the floor of his apartment, surrounded by the notebooks he’d filled with every clue no matter how slim regarding the object of his dreams. Then he’d got up, cleaned up his mess, organized his notebooks and started writing.

A Tangled Web, a novel of love, lust and violence in the late 1800’s by J. Randall was picked up by the second publisher he approached. No one knew Michael was writing a book. He didn’t use his own name and he kept his work hidden from everyone; even Tracy and his Uncle Vic. He made damn sure his mother never had a suspicion one about what he was doing. He didn’t need her sarcasm; he was insecure enough as it was.

Within four weeks, ‘WEB’ had hit the top ten on the New York Times best seller list. By the end of the seventh week, it was number one. Like I said, Michael’s book had everything you could possibly want in a novel and the addition of the pictures he’d located of Brian, Jacob and the young wife only made it more delicious.

Within a year, Michael was rolling in money just from the book and when Hollywood bought the rights, he became a millionaire thanks to Tracy’s insistence that he retain a percentage of the gross profits of the film. It cost 52 million to make and grossed 211 million dollars worldwide and that was before the DVD was released. Tracy and Uncle Vic were the only two people in the world who knew J. Randall and Michael Novotny were one and the same and they kept Michaels secrets as well as he did himself.

Michael told Emmet and Ted, he’d gotten a big bonus at work for some research project he’d done and he treated them to a night out; a night that ended at a club called Babylon.


	3. Chapter 3

Michael and his friends were having a fantastic time. Tracy was trying hard to maintain law and order among the three gay blades but even she was giving in to Emmet’s outrageous comments on everything from the table decorations to the tight pants on their waiter. By the time their entrée’s arrived the four friends were practically hysterical and trying hard to remember they were supposed to be adults.

Michael had been very cautious about his unexpected windfall. The only thing he had splurged on was the quadplex where the four friends lived. Only Tracy and Uncle Vic knew that Michael was their landlord. As far as Ted and Emmet were concerned, they paid their rent checks to a management firm who took care of the property for an absentee owner. They did comment several times on how well the property was maintained. Emmet had casually mentioned to Michael one day that his A/C didn’t seem to be cooling as well as it did when he first moved in and three hours later, a maintenance man was knocking on his door. He’d come to check the A/C. It was a little on the old side so it was replaced the next day with a brand new unit. Emmet was still raving about the maintenance on his new place. Michael just made sure Emmet didn’t see his satisfied smile. He loved taking care of his friends without hurting their pride.

Tonight was his only other extravagance. He had told them he got this large unexpected bonus from work and everything was on him. Both Ted and Emmet felt a little bad about him spending so much money on them but Tracy told them they were being selfish in not allowing Michael to treat his friends. They both decided if independent Tracy was willing to go along, so could they.

They were dining at one of the most exclusive restaurants in Pittsburgh. It was located on top of one of the luxury hotels and you had a killer view of the entire city laid out below you like a diorama display. They ate and drank good wine and laughed at stupid remarks and jokes and it was down to that part of the evening where everything said was funny. Michael said it was too bad they didn’t have anything really extravagant going on in Pittsburgh or he would have gotten tickets to some show or play for them. He said he wasn’t ready for the night to end and did they want to maybe go to a movie. Emmet asked them if they had ever been to Babylon. Both Michael and Tracy said no, they’d never even heard of Babylon. Ted looked at Emmet and said, “We really shouldn’t Em.”

“Oh no Teddy, it’s our duty. We must expose them to Babylon.”

“Don’t you think it might be a little too much for them?”

“I think they’ve both had enough wine to cushion the shock.”

Tracy cut in and demanded to know what kind of dive was Babylon.

Ted told her truthfully, it was the biggest gay dance club in Pittsburgh and practically the heart of Liberty Avenue which was the gay part of town. Michael knew about Babylon from Vic but he kept his mouth shut. Tracy said she was up for it. She was pretty sure she could fight off any lascivious lesbian that came along. Did the boys think they were safe?

Among lots of laughter and veiled threats about what could happen to an innocent at a sex shop like Babylon, the four of them found a cab and headed out.

Both Michael and Tracy sobered up a bit when they walked into Babylon. There was some sort of special event going on and the place was decorated from wall to wall and packed tight with hot boys and girls. Emmet pushed them both forward and started herding them towards the bar for drinks. He probably realized that they could use a little liquid courage for this scene. Ted ordered a Cosmo for Emmet, beer for Michael, a Cuba Libre for Tracy and a martini for himself. After their second round of drinks, both the club virgins had relaxed enough to enthusiastically follow Ted and Emmet out to the dance floor. Tracy was whirled away by a cute little blonde Lesbo who cut her out of the herd right away. The three guys kept dancing together but as they all got looser and more into the music, they began to acquire some suitors themselves. Emmet was a fantastic dancer and anyone within eyeball distance was attracted to him at once. But as they continued to dance, more and more men began trying to get Michael’s attention. Emmet was keeping a close eye on his friend and he realized that Michael really did dance like no one was watching. He also realized that his big brother substitute was one hot, hot man. Michael’s hair was gleaming black and curling around the edges from the heat. He was wearing a plain white dress shirt which he’d unbuttoned almost down to his belt. He’d also rolled the sleeves up to his elbows. His dress slacks which he’d put on for the fancy restaurant fitted him a lot closer than the loose chino’s he normally wore and the way he was moving, the lightweight material was forming itself to his very attractive butt and showing off all his assets.

Emmet stepped in several times when some stud got a little too aggressive but for the most part he just danced and enjoyed the show. And man Michael was really putting on a show. He was getting used to being touched and he no longer tensed up when someone slipped an arm around his waist or put their hands on his hips and pulled him up against a hard sweaty body. He had a natural joy about him and his own special personality made him a snuggler by nature. So when he stopped being scared, he would just cuddle right up to whatever body happened to be closest and keep on bouncing to the beat of the drums.

 

Emmet was aware of the tall, dark stranger almost before he saw him. There was something about the way he moved through the crowds of men almost like a king moving through a crowd of commoners. He fully expected them to move out of his way and for the most part; they did. He saw the man approach out of the corner of his eye and he turned to watch him come up behind Michael. He watched him put his arms around Michael’s slim waist and pull him back against his chest. He bent his head and whispered something in Michael’s ear. Whatever he said it got Michael’s attention at once. His eyes snapped open and he turned his head to look up at the man. He shook his head no and tried to pull away but the man just loosened his hold and again bent down and whispered in Michael’s ear. This time Michael turned in the man’s arms and slowly let him draw him into a slow dreamy dance. They danced through the ballad and the fast techno number that came next and then Emmet never knew how it happened but he lost sight of Michael. He began a furious search but Michael was gone. So was the dark, handsome stranger.

*****************

Michael had been completely lost in the music, the attention, the warm hungry hands that all seemed to want to caress his needy body. He couldn’t ever remember being so desirable not even during the first heady months of his affair with his college roommate. Suddenly the hair on the back of his neck and arms stirred almost as though he’d received an electric shock. He felt two strong arms come around his waist and he was pulled back against a strong, warm chest. The most seductive voice he’d ever heard whispered in his ear, “You look good enough to eat. Can I nibble on you?”

Michael’s eyes opened suddenly and he turned his head and looked up into the most beautiful face he’d ever seen. Big wide hazel eyes, a broad forehead, a long nose with just a slight bump and oh my God that mouth; that sensuous mouth that just begged to be kissed and tasted. The handsome stranger bent his head again and said, “Don’t worry; I won’t bite until you want me to.” Michael turned slowly and moved into the stranger’s arms. Just then the techno beat fell away and in its place was a slow dreamy love ballad. The man wrapped his arms around Michael and began to move in time with the slow sexy beat. Michael felt like he was dreaming and prayed he would never wake up. Then the music changed again back to the hot pounding beat that had been playing almost from their first moments in the club. The dark man moved his arms up and draped them over Michael’s shoulders. He pulled them together so their foreheads and their groins were touching and began to move their bodies in a hard solid sexy rhythm that quickly raised Michael’s blood to the boiling point. The man leaned down and licked the rim of Michael’s ear.

“Do you want to get out of here and find someplace a little less crowded?”

Michael didn’t even think twice. He just said, “Yes.”

The man began to spin Michael around in a circle letting their bodies get closer and closer together. When he stopped, Michael almost fell. He was grabbed and steadied and then the man asked for his check ticket. He dug it out of his back pocket, handed it to the dark man and waited while he retrieved their jackets and then led them out of the hot, crowded club. Michael never thought once about the friends he was leaving behind or what they might think when they looked for him and found him gone.

When they hit the sidewalk, it was as though a cab had been there waiting for them. With almost no pause at all, Michael was ushered into the back of the cab and the driver was given the address of one of Pittsburgh’s most luxurious 5 star hotels. Neither man spoke during the short ride but his Prince Charming, never let go of his hand during the entire ride. He rubbed his fingers over Michael’s wrist and with the other hand he petted the back of his neck and rubbed through the black sweaty curls. It was one hell of a ride. When they got to the hotel, the dark man gave the driver a hefty tip and put his hand on the small of Michael’s back as he escorted him through the huge, beautifully decorated lobby and over to the bank of elevators. Michael managed to form a few coherent thoughts. Because they had not gone to the desk, but directly to the elevators it was obvious that the man was already a guest at the hotel which meant he had to have money. These suites started at $295 and went up from there. When they got to the 25th floor, the man guided Michael out of the elevator. They walked to suite 2525 and the key card admitted them to luxury like Michael had never seen before. He didn’t have much time to enjoy the view because the man had him in his arms and in a deep passionate kiss almost before the door clicked shut.

Between kisses and licks and nips he asked if Michael needed something to drink or the bathroom. When Michael shook his head and said the only thing he needed was him, the man smiled and said, “Good answer!”

At random moments Michael thought he ought to be frightened. This guy could be a cannibalistic serial killer for all he knew and he’d gone with him like a lamb to the sacrificial altar. He did ask the guy if he had a name but the man just smiled and said, “No names. Let’s just let us be whatever or whoever we want to be.”

He took Michael into the bedroom and walked him over to the big exotic looking bed. He was kissing his neck and licking his ear. Every so often, he would blow his breath over a spot he’d just licked. He acted as though he could not get enough of Michael. Finally they were standing next to the bed; the man behind Michael holding him close and talking into his ear in a soft warm intimate whisper that made his bones melt. He told him he was going to fuck him, he was going to fuck him all night. He said he was going to worship him the way he should be worshiped; he was going to pay homage to his beautiful cock. Michael asked him how he knew his cock was beautiful since he’d never seen it. The man just laughed and said as beautiful as the complete package was, the individual parts had to be sensational. He said he was going to smother Michaels amazing ass with kisses and Michael tensed up before he could stop himself.

“Oh, does that reaction mean you like rimming or that you’ve never been rimmed? Which is it pretty boy?”

“Of course I’ve been rimmed. I’m not a virgin you know.”

“And did you like it?”

“It was okay I guess.”

“If it was only okay, you haven’t been rimmed. A proper rimming done by an expert, which I am by the way, is an experience you will never forget and you won’t call it okay. You may not be able to speak enough to call it anything when I’m done with you.”

Michael drew back and turned in his arms. “You really have a high opinion of yourself don’t you?”

“Yeah I do and the hundreds of men I’ve fucked have all given me glowing reviews so I’m pretty sure my opinion is well deserved. Now let’s get down to business shall we?”

He sat down on the bed and pulled Michael between his legs. He began to unbutton his shirt; first the cuffs and then the front buttons. When he had it open, he pushed it off Michael’s shoulders so it slid down his arms and then threw it towards a chair in the corner. He removed his t-shirt and let his hands roam all over Michael’s upper body. When he reached for Michael’s belt buckle Michael grabbed his hands and said, “What the hell is it about me that every man I meet wants to strip me naked while they stay completely dressed? “

Michael’s prince laughed at him and said, “Maybe it’s because you’re such a gorgeous package we just can’t wait to get the wrappings off.”

“Well not this time mister. Now you get up there on that bed and let me take over for a while.”

The man leaned forward and licked a wet stripe from Michael’s belly button up to the hollow in his neck. “Whatever flips your on-switch baby.”

He stood up, pulled back the covers, toed off his shoes and crawled up into the middle of the huge bed. Michael was after him in a flash. He pulled off his socks and then straddled his hips and began working on the buttons on his sleeveless black silk shirt. As he opened each button, he pressed a kiss on the exposed skin. Every so often, he stopped and kissed and sucked the man’s neck and worked on his ears. He couldn’t stop kissing that fantastic sulky mouth. He kept coming back like a humming bird sipping nectar from a feeder. When he got the shirt completely undone, he pulled the man up into a sitting position and removed the shirt. He wrapped his arms around him and kissed him again. This time his prince wrapped his arms around Michael and kissed him back with as much enthusiasm as he was getting. They kissed for an endless amount of time until Michael finally broke away and pushed the man back down on the bed. He undid his belt, opened his zipper and told the man to lift his hips. He pulled everything off at once and threw them in the same general direction his shirt had gone. He just sat back and looked at his prize. The man’s body was as beautiful as his face. Long and lean with smoothly sculpted muscles and beautiful skin all over. There was a thick thatch of brown silky hair covering his pubic area and his cock was a thing of beauty and probably could be counted one of the wonders of the modern world. It was big; big around and big in length and considering the fact that it was rock hard and standing up from the man’s body, Michael was treated to every terrifying inch of that amazing organ. He swallowed and leaned over and very slowly and gently began to use little kitten laps all over the silky head. One fact that Michael had learned from his affair with Riley was that he loved to give head and he was an artiste at the art of fellatio. He prided himself on his technique and the fact that he’d never met a cock he couldn’t swallow. Of course, he’d only been face to face with Riley’s which was a respectable 7 inches and a few other guys all of whom could not hold a candle to this impressive specimen.

He let his mouth close over the head and began a gentle sucking motion. His partner twitched but held still and didn’t try to stop Michael or direct him so Michael wiggled around until he’d gotten himself in a better position and was comfortable and began to give this beauty the attention it deserved. He licked and sucked and nibbled. He would relax his throat and go down on the cock as far as he could and then close his lips around the shaft and pull back exerting a continuous suction all the way to the tip. He moved the shaft to one side and took one of the heavy balls in his mouth and rolled it around and sucked on it. Then he gave the same treatment to the other. He nuzzled his nose down in between the two globes in the heavy sack and inhaled the strong musky scent of this intriguing man. He lifted the heavy sack and licked the smooth slick skin behind the ball sac then he went back to the dick itself. He was so caught up in his exploration of this amazing prize it took him a second to realize that his partner was no longer still nor was he quiet. He was moaning softly and his body was moving in response to every lick and flick of Michaels tongue. Michael suddenly took his cock all the way down his throat. He knew not many men could do that but as I said, he considered himself a master and he intended to show his bed partner he wasn’t the only experienced person In that bed. He swallowed around the thick shaft and then pulled off. He took a quick breath and repeated the movement again. His prince was now completely out of control and begging Michael to take him in his mouth again. He did only this time when he swallowed he completely relaxed his throat and hummed. The man shouted and came with a force that almost strangled Michael. He had the cock so far down his throat that he didn’t even taste his cum and had to pull back and suck on the head to get a sample of the man’s unique taste. He licked him clean and then stood and removed his pants and briefs before he moved up the bed to lie beside him pulling the covers up over them as he settled down.

It was several moments before the man was able to turn over and take Michael in his arms. He held him close and Michael was surprised to find the man was shaking. He should have been over the reaction to his strong climax but evidently he had been moved by the experience more than he thought he would. He rubbed his big hands over Michael’s back and pressed little kisses against his temple and in the black curls around his forehead. Finally he pulled back and laughed a little. “I knew when I looked across that dance floor and saw you that you would be something special but even I never realized just how special. Give me a few more minutes to recover and I’ll try to return the favor.”

Michael grinned into the man’s throat and told him to take his time. He wasn’t going anywhere for a while. The man pulled him close to him and told him he wasn’t going anywhere for long while. After all, he had said he intended to fuck him all night and he was looking forward to the rest of the evening. They lay together for a while until the man pulled away and sat up. He rolled Michael over on his stomach and reached into one of the nightstand drawers and pulled out a bottle of oil. He poured some in his hands, rubbed them together to warm them and then began to rub the oil into Michael’s back. As his hands began to move lower and lower Michael was torn between reacting to the touch of those big strong hands and the urge to just melt into the bed and let himself be moved around to suit the stranger’s needs. Suddenly, the man pulled Michael’s hips up off the bed. He grabbed a couple of pillows and tucked them under his groin and then he let his body down to rest on the pillows. He moved back, spread Michael’s legs apart and knelt between his open legs. He began to drop little kisses on Michael’s spine moving lower and lower. When he got to the top of Michael’s ass, he blew gently on the cleft between his cheeks. He took a butt cheek in each hand and pulled them apart and then he blew on Michael’s quivering pucker. He began to lick over and around the little rose bud. He fastened his lips over the pucker and began to suck then he started flicking his tongue over the opening; sometimes probing at the hole with the tip of this tongue and sometimes just licking over it with the flat of his tongue. Michael was on another level; hell he wasn’t even sure if he was on the same planet anymore. It was pretty obvious the lame attempts he and Riley had tried at rimming had not even scratched the surface because this was insanity and heaven and hell all rolled into one experience. Then the man thrust his stiffened tongue into Michael’s ass hole and Michael yelled out loud. He felt his cock stiffen and he began to rub it against the pillows but his lover/torturer reached under his body and grabbed the base of his cock. “Oh no, not yet. I want to make sure you know exactly what rimming is and that you never forget the way I’m making you feel right now.”

Michael couldn’t talk, he couldn’t beg, he couldn’t plead. All he could do was try desperately to get some friction against his burning aching dick and ride through the waves of pleasure so intense they were almost pain radiating out from the hot tongue thrusting in and out of his equally hot hole.

Finally the man let go of Michael’s cock, pulled the pillows out and rolled Michael back over on his back. He reached for the drawer again and this time came up with lube and a condom. He handed the condom to Michael and said, “You suit me up while I get you ready. You are ready for me aren’t you? Do you want a little more foreplay first?”

Michael glared at him and told him to fuck his foreplay and if he knew what was good for him, he would start fucking him at once. He rolled the condom (extra large of course) on the man’s almost angry red cock and laid back on the bed. He tried to be patient while the man inserted the lube and began to stretch him out to receive him. He knew after being up close and personal with that monster that he had to be prepared thoroughly but he sure didn’t want to wait for it to happen. At last, he grabbed the man’s wrists and pulled him down to his eager mouth. When they broke from the kiss, he told him he was ready and to get in him now. Michael was almost as surprised as his lover at how easily that huge penis slipped into his waiting body. But the long period of rimming plus all the saliva and the lube had prepared the passage and then of course, there was the fact that Michael wanted this with all his heart. Their first time together seemed to last forever and that was much too short for Michael. As he drifted off to sleep, he realized his lover was still deep inside his body and he was still hard even after shooting a load that had almost burned Michael through the condom.


	4. Chapter 4

Michael woke up completely disoriented. He opened his eyes slowly and looked around the big strange room. Suddenly last night came flooding back; all of last night. Along with the memories came pain. Michael was one gigantic hurt from one end to the other. As his memories completed he felt his stomach try to rebel. He fought hard to keep from puking in the bed. His partner was completely out of it but still had both arms wrapped around him and one leg thrown over his. His queasy stomach and body aches turned out to be a good thing because he had to move very slowly which let him finally extricate himself from the tight embrace. He held his breath as he managed to stand up straight. The stranger fussed in his sleep. He missed his bed partner even as deeply under as he was. Michael grabbed his pillow and eased it into the man’s arms. He sniffed at the pillow and then relaxed. Michael crept silently and slowly around the room gathering his belongings.

He carefully opened the bedroom door and went into the big living area to put on his clothes. It was hard getting dressed because of the pain he was experiencing. He closed his mind as to how he got the pain and just concentrated on getting his clothes on enough to get out of the hotel without being arrested for vagrancy. He ran his hands through his hair trying to calm the curls down and headed out towards the elevators. He made it through the lobby with only a few odd glances and asked the doorman to get him a taxi. He remembered to tip the doorman a fiver and then crawled into the taxi trying hard not to cry out when he finally got folded up in the back seat. He gave his address and closed his eyes. When he got to his house, he paid off the driver and was trying to get up the steps to his porch when his front door was thrown open and his 3 frantic friends came rushing out to him.

Emmet grabbed him first and started shaking him and asking where the hell he’d been but when he put his hands on Michael he cried out at the sudden jarring pain. Both Emmet and Tracy immediately put their arms around him and helped him up the steps. Ted held the door open wide and started to move the cushions on the couch but Tracy told him to head for the bedroom, Michael needed to lay down and his bed would be more comfortable. By the time they got Michael into the bedroom, Ted had the covers thrown back and the pillows piled up so Michael could partially recline. They carefully set him down on the edge of the bed. Tracy bent down to take off his shoes and socks and Emmet and Ted started working his arms out of his jacket. His head fell back and Emmet let out a loud gasp.

“Good Lord baby, what happened to you? Your mouth looks like 5 lbs of raw hamburger. Did you get mugged?”

Michael tried to smile at his worried friend but his mouth hurt too much. He sort of mumbled that they should see the other guy. Tracy went into the bathroom to get a warm washcloth while Emmet worked on Michael’s shirt and Ted tried to get his trousers undone. When Michael felt Ted’s hands on his belt buckle he started to cry. At once Tracy was back in the room kneeling on the floor beside Michael. Ted and Emmet sat down on the bed beside him and put their arms around him. They all held him and tried to soothe him. He just let it all go almost like he had so many years ago in day care. When he finally got himself cried out, Tracy gently washed his face with the washcloth and checked out his lip. She said what both men were thinking, “Michael, were you raped? You know you can tell us, we love you and we only want to help you but we need to know what happened to help you the right way without hurting you anymore.”

Michael shook his head slowly. “No it was consensual. It was the most amazing experience of my life and probably the worst.”

Ted tilted his head back to get a better look at his mouth and said, “Uh Michael, how could it be consensual when you look like you’ve been chewed on by a carnivore and you’re in so much pain you can hardly sit still?”

Michael did manage a small grin at Ted and held out his hands. His nails were caked with blood and it was obvious there was some skin there also. “Like I said, you should see the other guy. I gave as good as I got. When things got heated, I almost ripped his back off.”

Emmet sat back and looked at his friend. “Okay so you had the most amazing sex of your entire life. The two of you almost killed each other while you were mating so why are you here with us instead of him and why are you crying.”

Michael looked at Emmet and then just sort of slumped in on himself. “Because the fucking condom broke and we just kept fucking again and again. I think I knew before he did but neither one of us cared. Not that time or the times after. He didn’t even try to put one on after that. He just kept fucking me bare and I let him. Hell I would have hit him if he hadn’t.”

There was complete silence in the room and then the sound of some small moans and a quiet ‘Oh No’ from Tracy.

*******************

The four friends had a good cry and then Ted, the realist, asked Michael if he had any idea about the state of the man’s health. Michael told him about his comment about fucking hundreds of men. He said he doubted the stranger had been exaggerating. Emmet agreed and told them about the way he moved through the crowded dance floor like royalty moving through his loyal subjects.

“He was super sure of himself. I’m pretty sure he’s not just a player but may well be the king of players. So I have to ask Michael; do you have any other injuries besides the mouth.”

Michael told him to take off his shirt. They all gasped as his upper body was exposed. He was covered with hickeys and love bites. Some of them had little pin points of blood in the bruises. Emmet put his head in his hands and just sat there for a second. When he raised his head again, he had tears on his cheeks.

“Baby, I don’t want to hurt or embarrass you but I have to look; okay?”

“Okay but just you. Please!”

Ted and Tracy stood and quietly left the room. Emmet helped Michael stand up and then he carefully removed his trousers and his briefs. The briefs were black but even so, Emmet could feel the stiff spots on the cotton material. He knew what he would find. He just hoped it wasn’t too bad.

He helped Michael back down on the bed and then he lifted his feet up and had him roll over. He got a small flashlight from Michael’s nightstand and laid it on the bed. He went into the bathroom and washed his hands scrubbing them all the way past his wrists. He took a deep breath and went back into the bedroom. He carefully parted Michael’s cheeks and looked at the damage. There was blood smeared all over his behind. He told Michael he needed to look inside but he would not intrude any more than was absolutely necessary. He turned on the flashlight and used a pillow to direct the small but intense beam directly on Michael’s anus. He got some lube out of the nightstand, smeared some on his fingers and carefully pulled him open. He saw two anal tears and what looked like a third further up the channel. He cleaned himself up and then came back and threw a blanket over Michael’s nude body.

“Sweetie there are at least two tears and I’m pretty sure there’s another one further inside. They’ve been contaminated with fecal material. We need to take you to the ER. You need an AIDS test, you need a professional to decide if these things need to be stitched and you need antibiotics.”

Michael turned his head into the pillow. He didn’t make a sound but Emmet knew from the way his body was shaking that he was crying. He didn’t say anything; hell there was nothing to say. He knew Michael would be going through hell for a long time to come. He laid his head on the pillow beside this dear friend he loved like family and cried with him.

********************

In suite 2525 in a luxury hotel in downtown Pittsburgh a dark handsome stranger woke slowly. He thought about the amazing night he’d just had with what he thought was going to be a casual pick-up. He’d known after they got naked together in the big bed that this was no casual pick-up. As he told his black haired angel, he had fucked hundreds of men but he knew when he wrapped his arms around his partner what they did together that night would not be fucking. He was too cynical to admit to himself that he just might have fallen in love at first sight but he knew this was something he’d never felt before and he wanted to get to know this man and make sure he knew he was not one of those hundreds of men; but rather, something very special. When he realized he was alone, completely alone, with not a single sign that someone had been there with him he felt pain like he’d never felt before. The burning stinging pain of his lacerated back and ass was nothing compared to the pain in his gut when he tried to remember if either of them had mentioned a name or anything that might tell him who his pick-up had been or where he’d gone. He looked at the wreck of a bed. It was covered in semen, blood and fecal stains. He knew it hadn’t been a dream. It was real; as real as the broken condom laying on the nightstand. He remembered the shock he’d felt when he’d pulled out and there was just shreds of latex clinging to his semi-firm dick. He also remembered the expression on his angel’s face when he told him the condom broke. He felt his blood stir and his cock twitch as he remembered his beautiful man pulling his head down and kissing him until he didn’t care about the condom or the danger or anything but this man, this fantastic, wonderful man. He remembered the blaze of desire he’d felt when he entered him again completely bare; no condom, no regrets.

He got up and went into the bathroom. He started the shower. He had a plane to catch and not a lot of time to get ready for it. He methodically cleaned his body and started to shampoo his hair. He thought of how it could have been if he’d had someone in the shower with him. He slumped down the side of the shower wall, put his head in his hands and cried.


	5. Chapter 5

In the months that followed Michael thought many times he would not make it if it weren’t for the constant love and support of his three friends and his Uncle Vic. Tracy had called Vic before they took Michael to the hospital making sure that Debbie was not in the house. She told him that Michael had a bad experience, they were taking him to the hospital and he would probably need his uncle in the months to come. Vic told her the most important thing right then was Michael’s health followed by the extreme necessity of keeping the whole situation from his mother and his work.

Tracy was really happy she’d called Vic after that. She had just thought they would go to Allegheny and use Michael’s insurance to pay for the visit. But Michael’s insurance was through his position at Carnegie-Mellon and any claim would go straight to the Human Resources department and would then be available to most of the personnel at the University. She checked Michael’s wallet, saw that he had about $50.00 and went to his bedroom and got his checkbook out of his desk.

When Michael first told her about his book and his alias J. Randall, she had as a joke, got him some fake ID under that name. She saw the ID when she went to get his checkbook and had an inspiration. She put his personal checkbook back and instead took the fake ID and the checkbook on his J. Randall account.

By that time, Ted and Emmet had gotten Michael dressed in clean clothes and they were just waiting on her. They loaded him in Ted’s car and took off for the ER.

It took a long time but eventually Michael was able to remember that whole experience through his writer’s eye and even he had to admit it was truly surreal. He could barely walk but sitting was even more painful so Ted and Emmet almost carried him into the unit. Tracy went ahead to open doors and remove anything that got in their way. When they got to the admitting desk, the nurse on duty took one look at Michael and called for an attendant and a chair. It took both Ted and Emmet to get Michael lowered into the chair. Tracy told them to go with Michael while she took care of filling out the admission forms and she would join them as soon as they were done. She took Michael’s wallet, removed the J. Randall ID, gave it to the clerk and told her that her friend was a writer and did not have insurance, he would be paying cash. She got it all taken care of and then went looking for her guys.

She found them in a curtained cubicle with the most officious nurse she’d ever had the misfortune of meeting in her life. Michael was not really able to answer her questions and she was getting nastier and nastier as she recorded the information Ted and Emmet were giving her. When Emmet said his injuries were the result of rough sex, she puffed up like the Michelin tire man and asked if the girl involved was alright or did she need to contact the police. Ted and Emmet just stared at her in amazement but Tracy went into her protective mother mode and proceeded to read the bitch the riot act.

She told her that Michael was the patient and in need of medical attention and if she continued to delay notifying a real doctor of that fact, she would be laying the hospital open to some massive lawsuits. Tracy got right in her face and told her she would personally make it her life’s work to see to it that the nurse was named in the suit and would be held accountable. There was a lot of indignant posturing but the woman did leave and within 5 minutes a doctor was in the room. He said his nurse seemed to be a little upset about their attitude and would someone like to tell him what was going on. Ted and Emmet just turned to Tracy and said, “Go to it honey; you’ve been doing better than we have.”

Tracy informed the doctor that Michael had been involved in an episode of rough sex, the condom had broken and there was an exchange of body fluids. The doctor looked at Michael closely, lifting his head and examining his mouth. He said, “I’m assuming from your attitude that this was a homosexual encounter?”

Tracy went on the defensive at once. “Yes doctor, how observant of you. It was a homosexual encounter. Is that going to make a difference in the treatment our friend receives?”

“Of course it is. I need to check for rectal damage and I need to order blood work to check for AIDS AND I need to start some preventative measures in case he has been exposed.”

Emmet interrupted and told him he had done a quick check and saw at least two tears and he thought there was another one.

The doctor, Dr. Littleton, closed his eyes for a moment and an expression of worry crossed his face. He looked at Michael and told him he was going to have to do a thorough physical exam. He asked the three friends to wait outside. They all started to argue but Michael told them he would be fine and to just please let the doctor do his thing. When Tracy told Dr. Littleton that Michael could not undress himself and she would rip Nurse Ratchett’s head off if she came near her friend, he smiled and said he would help Michael himself. He would not need Nurse Ratchett.

“By the way, her name is Brown, Evelyn Brown; just in case you want to file a formal complaint. I’ve been trying to get her reassigned for eight months now. She’s a good nurse but her people skills leave a lot to be desired.”

The three left the room with their concern for Michael somewhat eased. At least this doctor didn’t seem to be a homophobic asshole. Back in the room, Dr. Littleton asked Michael if he could unbutton his shirt or did he need help. Michael said he could do it but when he lifted his hands and started to work on the button’s, the doctor reached out and took Michael’s hands in his. He looked at the blood and skin caked under Michael’s nails and said, “Mr. Randall…”

Michael reared back and looked at the doctor and said, “What did you call me?”

The doctor looked at the admission papers and said, “Your name is listed as J. Randall. Did I pronounce it wrong? I can’t imagine any other way it could sound.”

“No, I just didn’t realize you had my forms. I never filled them out.”

“Well, it says here that your friend Miss Blake provided the information and that you have no insurance and will pay by cash. Is that correct?”

“Yes that’s correct. I haven’t had time to get insurance yet. I’m a writer and I’m living with Tracy at the moment.”

“Well, now that that’s taken care of, are you sure this was consensual sex? Those really look like defensive wounds to me; almost as though you were fighting someone off.”

Michael dropped his head in complete embarrassment. He took a deep breath and raised his head and looked the doctor right in the eye.

“No I was trying to get him closer. I wanted him to be a part of me and I clawed at his back and his ass trying to pull him even closer. I assure you doctor, the sex was consensual and bloody and violent and amazing.”

“It sounds like something people only read about in books so while I’m helping you to undress, tell me as much as you can or should I say as much as you are comfortable in sharing.”

Michael found that talking to a stranger was easier than trying to tell his friends so he started talking.

He told him about the start of the evening, the desire to keep the good times going, the trip to Babylon, the feeling of freedom being in a crowd of people that big and being unknown. He told him how he had never felt so desirable, so wanted in his life. He talked about the men and how he loved the feel of their bodies against his and not having to worry about what they thought about him or whether he was being the companion they wanted. His voice took on a dreamy note when he told about the beautiful dark stranger who’d approached him. He said he’d never felt anything like that before in his life. Almost as though his entire will belonged to this man and he was willing, no he wanted to do anything and everything the man asked. He told about going to the hotel and their love-making. He said the man was very careful about preparing him and he was all for it because the guy was much larger than anyone he’d been involved with in the past. He said that their first time was unbelievable and that when they had both climaxed they had rested together for a while but the man was still semi-hard. He asked Michael if he was up for another and Michael said yes so his lover pulled out to put on a fresh rubber and that’s when they realized the rubber had broken. Only the base and some shreds were still on the man’s cock, the rest including the large load of semen was still inside Michael.

Dr. Littleton took a deep breath. He’d been so caught up in Michael’s story he hadn’t realized he’d been holding his breath. “Did you notice blood on his penis?”

“I don’t think so. You have to understand, I’m not that active in the sex game. My first homosexual experience was with my college roommate and we were pretty much exclusive for the first two years. After that, he found someone else and I didn’t really go out looking. There have been a couple of pick-ups but nothing serious and I’ve always been so careful. My uncle is gay and he’s HIV positive. From the moment he first suspected I was gay also, he’s stressed the importance of security, safety not just for myself but for my partners too. This is just going to kill him when he finds out I’ve been exposed and it was strictly my fault.”

“Let’s not assign any blame just yet. Go on with your story; you had one orgasm and you were about to have another when you discovered the ruptured condom.”

Michael took a deep breath and said, “I can’t remember what I thought when I saw that shredded condom. I don’t think I was thinking, I was too deep in lust to care about anything other than getting him back inside me again. He looked at me and I could tell he was shocked. He said, he never knew, he didn’t realize it had broken. He peeled the remains off his cock and started to get up. I remember grabbing him and asking him where he was going. He said, he assumed I would want to stop but I pulled him back down to me and said I wasn’t ready to stop. I wanted him again. He had promised me he would fuck me, he would fuck me all night long. I asked him if he was going to renege on his promise. I remember he got this funny look on his face and then he kissed me. He kissed me over and over and said he would never renege on any promise he made to me and then he pushed into me. It hurt and it felt like heaven and I just could not get enough. We must have gone three maybe four more times before we just passed out. All during that time it was like we both lost our minds. He kept licking and sucking on me and I remember I was biting him and clawing at him to get him closer and deeper. At one point he leaned down to kiss me just as I started to sit up. That’s when I got the fat lip. My teeth went right into the skin of his forehead and he had blood running down into his eyes. I wiped the blood off and licked his wound and we just kept fucking. “

There was silence in the room. Dr. Littleton had Michael stripped and laid him back on the examining table and began to catalogue the bite marks, scratches, bruises and hickeys on his body. He found multiple spots where the skin was broken and teeth marks were visible. The lip was the worst on the front of his body. He helped Michael turn over and began a careful examination of his back and buttocks. He tried to be as gentle as possible but when he slipped his rubber clad fingers into his rectum and spread them open Michael let out a strangled moan. The tears were immediately visible. There were two fairly long, deep tears right around the opening with two more tears further up the channel. All the tears were contaminated with fecal material.

“Okay Mr. Randall, here’s what I see.”

“Before you start, could you please call me Michael? Mr. Randall sounds like you’re talking to someone else.”

Dr. Littleton smiled at his patient and said, “Okay Michael. You have four fairly severe rectal tears. You have numerous areas on your body where the skin has been broken and of course you know how bad your lip is. The lip is going to hurt like a son-of-a-bitch for at least a week, the bruises and bite marks will heal easily with no scarring but the rectal tears are a problem. They have all been contaminated with feces and two of them are on opposite sides of the anus so no matter how you try to sit or move they are going to hurt. I don’t think any of them need stitching. You need antibiotics; of course you need HIV testing. The worst part of this whole thing is you are going to have to be patient. You are going to have to take the AIDS test every two to three months for at least a year before we can be fairly sure you are in the clear. You are going to be in extreme and I do mean extreme pain for several weeks. I’m going to give you shots now including one for pain because I need to administer an enema to try to rinse the contaminants out of the tears. Then I'm going to give you prescriptions for pain, stool softeners, antibiotics and anti-depressants because you are going to have some really bad days ahead. From the way your friends acted, I think you’re going to have a good support system but this is not going to be over in a day or two. I want you on a strictly liquid diet for the next 48 hours. For the next five days after that, you only eat very, very soft food; cottage cheese, soup, milk shakes, mashed potatoes and watch out for the spices. You need to be very careful about what you put in your body because everything that goes in is going to come out and it only has one way of getting out unless you want to puke for the rest of your life.”

“No I think I get the picture. I’ll just have to tough it out and I imagine that first bowel movement is going to be a doozy.”

“Michael, that first bowel movement is going to make you shit your pants.”

“Well, that’s assuming I have enough solids up there to have a bowel movement AND shit my pants.”

“Oh believe me, the pain will make you do things you never believed possible. Use the pain pills carefully and I want to see you as a personal patient in one week; call me sooner if you have any problems at all. Oh sorry, I just assumed that since you’d just moved here you didn’t have a doctor. Do you have someone you’d rather see?”

“No, Dr. Littleton I think right now you know more about me than anyone else in this world. I think I’ll stick with you.”

********************************

Every single thing Dr. Littleton said happened. Michael didn’t think it was possible to hurt that bad and keep on living. Tracy went out and bought him some Tucks. He had no idea what they were and asked her how she knew about them. She said her mom had hemorrhoids and used them all the time. They were so much easier on Michael’s poor battered butt than toilet paper he bought them by the dozens. After the fourth day of liquids and semi-liquids, Michael found himself dreaming about celery sticks and carrots and chili dogs; anything with some substance to it. And the first bowel movement...well let’s just say, Littleton was right about that also. Michael was off work for almost two weeks, it took that long before he could sit comfortably in a chair for any length of time. Trying to keep Debbie in the dark was a task that took the patience of the three friends and Michael’s Uncle Vic. They told her that Michael had fallen off a ladder while changing a light bulb in his living room. That explained the body aches and the nasty lip but Debbie could not or would not go along with the liquid diet. She kept insisting that all Michael had to do was eat something and he’d get his strength back and be as good as new so she brought him lasagna and garlic bread and spaghetti with spicy meatballs and heavily breaded chicken and pork dishes. Finally Vic yelled at her that the kid couldn’t eat that crap to just take a look at his swollen lip. God he could hardly open his mouth enough to talk how did she expect him to open it and take in hot spicy foods. At last she backed off and everybody took a deep breath of relief.

The first HIV test came back negative and Dr. Littleton told Michael it was very good news but to remember it would be months before he was completely in the clear. Michael’s physical injuries healed a lot faster than his emotional ones. He had nightmares so bad they woke both Tracy and Emmet. After the fifth night in a row, Emmet told Michael to move over. He and Tracy were going to take turns sleeping with Michael until he was able to handle the emotional storms. Neither of them told Ted about their nighttime chores. They knew he would take his turn at being with Michael but both Tracy and Emmet were aware of the fact that Ted was in love with Michael and being that close to him every night and listening to him cry for another man, especially one who had hurt him as badly as his dark prince had would tear Ted apart. They kept that little secret to themselves.

Slowly but surely Michael began to heal. He concentrated harder than ever at his job at the library and started work on another book. This one was called Nora’s Ark and was about a minister’s daughter who was sexually abused by her father. Eventually he was caught and she left home and went to LA. She went to work for a rising rock group. One day she shyly asked the lead singer to read something she had written for him. He did just so he could joke about it with his mates and much to his amazement it was damned good. He set the words to music and it was his first number one record. Eventually she wrote all his lyrics for him and he took complete advantage of her. He used her lyrics, he used her body and he used her adoration of him for his own amusements. One day she wrote something that wasn’t for him; it was for her. It was called Heroin Heroine. He praised her and made her think he loved the song and he wanted her to sing it for him. He waited until they were doing a huge concert at the Hollywood Bowl and then called her out on the stage and made her sing the song in front of the thousands and thousands of cheering fans. The whole thing back-fired. The blinders dropped off her eyes and Nora saw him for the nasty manipulative bastard he was. She sang the song putting everything she had in it and the place went wild. She became bigger than he ever thought of being and since she didn’t write his lyrics for him anymore, he was going downhill fast.

The book required a lot of work on Michael’s part and a lot of research because let’s face it, Michael was not a rock star and didn’t know anything about that life style. It was just what he needed and his publisher was so excited when he got the preliminary summary he almost drooled in the phone.

Things had improved so much that days went by and Michael didn’t think about the ticking time bomb he might be carrying in his blood stream. He didn’t think about the man he still desired so much he was like a flame in his thoughts. He was beginning to think about the future and maybe learning to live again. Then one day, he was home working on some routine catalog entries for the library and came across his original research for ‘A Tangled Web’. He started looking through his old notebooks. He turned a page and there was the picture of Brian Halloran that had first sparked his interest and he froze. His hands started to shake and he dropped everything he was holding. The picture landed face up on the mess on the floor. Beneath the old fashioned facial hair, the extreme hair-do and stiff period clothes was the beautiful dark stranger Michael desired so desperately


	6. Chapter 6

Sometime later, Ted came looking for Michael. He found him in his bedroom, sitting at his desk, just looking at a pile of papers on the floor. He started to apologize for disturbing him but when Michael didn’t appear to notice or hear him, he went into the room. He walked over and touched Michael on the shoulder. There was no response other than the small shudders that seemed to be going through his friend’s body. Ted tried talking to him and saying his name. He still got no response and now he was really worried. He walked around and picked up the papers on the floor. There was a really old sepia-toned photo lying on top of the pile. He looked at the photo and thought it looked familiar. He was almost certain he’d seen that picture before. Then his worry for his friend took over. He put the papers on Michael’s desk and reached down and took Michael’s hands in his. He got him to stand up and he led him over to the bed. He carefully sat him down on the side of the bed and bent down and took Michael’s shoes off. He loosened his belt and then pushed him down on the bed and lifted his feet up on the bed. He got the big soft fleece blanket from the foot of the bed and covered Michael tucking him in like a child. Michael was still shaking so he went to his own bedroom and got a heating pad. He brought it back and put it under the blanket on Michael’s chest. After that he wasn’t sure what to do so he just pulled a chair over to the bed and sat there holding Michael’s hand. For the umpteenth time since that night at Babylon, he found himself wishing he could kill another human being. He would like to rip the stranger apart for what he’d done to Michael.

To pass the time, Ted went over to the desk and brought the papers over to the bed. He started going through the journals and old pictures. Suddenly he knew where he’d seen the picture before. Ted was a closet romantic. He loved opera and stories of unrequited love and passion. He’d read the reviews for a book called ‘A Tangled Web’ and he’d made a point of going to the book store on his lunch hour to get a copy. He’d read the thing several times and thought it was brilliant. The pictures lent an air of authenticity to the almost unbelievable story and just to know that all happened in his home town made him feel a little dangerous. He really loved that book. He wondered how Michael had gotten the pictures. It had to be through his work at the library. He was about to open one of the journals marked ‘Notes’ when Tracy came through the front door calling Michael’s name. He got up and went out into the living room.

“We’re in here Tracy. Something’s wrong with Michael.”

Tracy almost knocked Ted down in haste to get into the bedroom. She went over to the bed and put her hand on Michael’s forehead. She pushed the loose hair off his face and said his name softly. He never moved. She pulled the blanket down a little and saw he had a heating pad on his stomach and his arms were crossed over the pad as though he was holding the warm spot against him. She got up and went back over to the doorway. She took Ted’s arm and led him out to the living room.

“Tell me exactly what happened!”

Ted told her everything from the moment he realized Michael had not heard him speak to him until the present.

“Did you get the heating pad?”

“Yeah, he didn’t seem to be hurting but he was shaking; these little tremors that would go through him. I figured since he didn’t seem to hear me that he might be in shock and I thought heat would be good for him so I got him on the bed and covered him up. He was still shaking even with the blanket tucked in around him so I went back to my place and got my heating pad. I’ve been sitting with him ever since. I didn’t want to leave him alone; well at least until he can tell us what’s the matter.”

“You said there was a pile of papers on the floor and he was just sitting at his desk looking down at the papers?”

“Yeah.”

“Show me what they were.”

Ted took her back into the bedroom and pointed to the pile of papers on Michael’s desk. “That’s what was on the floor. Oh and this old photo was lying on top of the pile.”

He handed the picture to her. Tracy took the picture and looked at it carefully. She started to put it back on the desk but something stopped her. She turned on the desk light and looked at the picture again under the light. There was something picking at her brain. Tracy had never seen the dark stranger that had lured Michael away from Babylon but Ted had. She grabbed the photo, turned off the desk lamp and headed out of the bedroom, grabbing Ted along the way. She went over to Michael’s end-table and turned on the light there. She put the photo under the light and then asked Ted if anything looked familiar.

“Of course; it’s the photo of the younger brother in ‘A Tangled Web’. You remember; the book I was so high on that I made all of you read it. This is the picture that was used in that book.”

Tracy realized Ted was just one small step from finding out about Michael’s other identity. She needed to distract him before he put two and two together. After all; being insecure did not mean Ted was dumb. He was actually very smart and being an accountant he had an extremely logical mind. He could get from one point to another real quick.

“No Ted not that. Take a look at the man in the photo. Imagine him with no facial hair, his hair in a modern cut and dressed for a night out at the clubs. Do you recognize him?”

Ted sat down on the couch and leaned over the photo. He scanned it carefully. “No I don’t think I…wait a minute, wait a minute, I do…there is something familiar about the…”

He lapsed off into silence still staring at the photo. Suddenly he jumped up and said, “HOLY SHIT.”

Tracy grabbed him and said, “HOLY SHIT WHAT! Do you recognize him?”

Ted grabbed the photo and almost ran out of Michael’s living room through the common room and over to his apartment. Tracy just stood there wondering when the inmates had taken over the asylum and where was she when it happened. She decided to go back and sit with Michael hoping that Ted would turn up eventually.

It was almost 30 minutes when she heard a ‘Psst’ behind her. She turned and Ted was motioning at her to come into the living room.

When she joined him he pulled her over to the end table and laid the photo down. Then he laid another photo down beside it. She looked at the two photos; the original and the new one of a hauntingly beautiful man in a dark sleeveless shirt. He had a face that would be hard to forget and the sexiest mouth Tracy had ever seen on a man or a woman.

“Okay, what am I looking at here.”

“You are looking at the original photo after I scanned it into my Photoshop software and started playing with it. I took off the facial hair, did some reconstruction work on the face, gave him a modern hair cut and put him in a party shirt.”

“My god, he’s beautiful. No wonder the wife was willing to give up everything for him.”

“Tracy, he’s not only beautiful; he’s Michael’s dark stranger. This is the man who was dancing with Michael the last time Emmet and I saw him. We both saw them dancing to a slow dreamy ballad and then they started playing a fast number again. We checked and they were doing a little bumpin’ and grindin’ but not anything more than Michael had been doing with everyone else. When we looked back they were gone. Emmet and I searched all over, even going up on the catwalk to see if we could spot Michael’s white shirt in the crowd. That’s when we came and got you. We couldn’t find him and this was the man he was with.”

Tracy couldn’t say anything. She just looked at Ted but her mind was working a mile a minute. Michael had told her that the research he’d done from the moment he first saw the picture of Brian Halloran had turned into an obsession. He dreamed about the man and eventually he started having wet dreams about him. He’d written the book partly to get back at the selection committee and partly to try and free him from his fascination with a photo of a man who’d been dead for more than a century.

Ted was still staring at the two photos and shaking his head. “How in the hell could a man born more than a hundred years ago, have picked up our friend in a gay club and had sex with him all night long? How is that possible?”

Tracy reached over and turned off the light. “Ted, we have enough to worry about here without invoking the supernatural. Isn’t everyone in the world supposed to have a doppelganger somewhere? The man is unique and undoubtedly gorgeous but the odds of someone else looking like him are not astronomical. After all a face is composed of two eyes, a nose, a mouth and a chin; which sort of limits the possibility’s somewhat. Maybe he’s related to the Halloran’s somewhere back in history. The wife was pregnant with Brian’s child when she left town. For now, let’s just worry about Michael. I think he saw the same thing we did; the man who possibly infected him with a disease that kills while giving him the best sex he’d ever had in his life. I think he’s in shock. I’m going to call Jimmy.”

Although it got off to a rocky start, the relationship between Dr. Littleton and the four friends had solidified into a personal as well as a professional bond. Dr. Littleton had been fascinated with Michael’s story about his night with his incubus. As Michael had described the night, his voice had taken on a dreamy quality and it was easy for someone with a good imagination to picture a dark incarnation of sexual desire mating with a human and enjoying it so much, the demon lost control. Michael had been Dr. Littleton’s patient for almost 5 months before he got up the courage to tell Michael about his wild imaginings. Michael had been amazed at his description and found himself dwelling on the good doctor’s take on his night. Eventually Dr. Littleton became Jimmy and then almost a fifth to their quartet.

Jimmy was there within the hour. He went into the bedroom and examined Michael with the other three waiting patiently in the living room; well if you call three adults all pacing back and forth patient. He sat down with them and reassured them that Michael was now sleeping quietly.

“I got him undressed and made him get into bed so he would be more comfortable. He likes the comfort of the heating pad so I left it with him. I hope you don’t need it tonight Ted. Tomorrow we can get him one of his own.”

“Jimmy what happened?” Tracy was clearly still upset about the incident.

“He thought he saw the man he’d spent the night with in some picture he was looking at.”

Ted reached over to the nightstand and picked up the two photos. “He did!”

Jimmy took the two pictures and looked at both of them carefully. His face was pale when he looked up at the three worried people staring back at him. “Are you all sure about this?”

Emmet answered for both he and Ted. “You’re damned right we’re sure. Ted and I both watched him from the time he approached Michael until we lost sight of him on the dance floor and they disappeared. That’s the man. That’s also a man named Brian Halloran who died around 1890 right here in Pittsburgh. His death was a big deal at the time and was covered by all the Pittsburgh papers and those papers are still in existence in the Carnegie-Mellon Library Archives.”

Jimmy was shaking his head in amazement. “I knew who the picture was. I read the book. Actually I read it twice. But I thought Michael was just experiencing a type of panic attack.”

Emmet snorted, “Yeah I’ll bet he was in a panic alright. He probably took one look at that picture and the whole thing happened all over again. So what are we going to do for him? Hell, it’s just been within the last month that Tracy and I have been able to let him spend the night alone.”

Ted’s head came up so fast his neck snapped. Tracy groaned silently to herself, ‘Dammit Emmet, you should have kept your mouth shut.’

“What do you mean you and Tracy haven’t been able to let him spend the night alone? Where was I while this was going on?”

Emmet knew he’d opened Pandora’s Box and he better come up with something good to slam that lid back down again; especially in front of Jimmy who Emmet secretly thought had a mild crush on Michael.

“Teddy, Michael was having real bad nightmares and since Tracy and I are closest to his bedroom, we heard them. We finally agreed that no one was getting any sleep at all so we would take turns staying with him until he was doing better. We decided not to bother you because of your position at Horshafter’s. I know how frantic your mornings can be and we knew you needed all the sleep you could get. Tracy’s first class isn’t until 10.00am and let’s face it; my time is completely flexible. When I had a party to do, Tracy did the babysitting.”

“Well I appreciate the thought for my well-being but Michael is just as dear to me as he is to you. You could have at least told me.” Ted was really hurt and wasn’t even trying to hide it.

Oddly enough Jimmy calmed his ruffled feathers.

“Ted, just from listening and observing I know you blame yourself for what happened to Michael even though he doesn’t. He never has blamed either you or Emmet. He’s an adult; he made the decision to go to Babylon of his own free will and no one held a gun to his head and made him leave with his dark prince. He did it all on his own. It’s killing him that you are still thinking you did something horrible and put your friend in harm. You didn’t. Michael and this incubus of his are the only two people responsible for his current condition. You know if they’d told you he was having nightmares so bad he was waking up people in other rooms, you would have been devastated.”

Ted thought for a while and said, “I guess you’re right. I thought I was getting over it but you’re right. I do feel like I should have done something. I’m almost 10 years older than Michael. I should have been taking better care of him.”

Both Emmet and Tracy walked over and put their arms around Ted. Emmet held both his friends tightly and then he said, “Teddy, after seeing those pictures I’m beginning to think this whole thing was meant to be. I don’t think there was a single thing anyone could have done to stop this from happening.”

Tracy glared at Emmet. “Now don’t you start getting all supernatural on me too. I’m telling you there is no connection between that photo and the man who picked up Michael other than a close resemblance. Will you all please stop looking for ghosts and help me get Michael back on his feet. If he thinks there is something in that damned picture the last thing he needs is for you two to agree with him.”

Jimmy agreed with Tracy and they decided to order Chinese for the four of them and spend a quiet evening in. They all went into the common room making sure they left Michael’s door open so they could hear him if he had a nightmare. The rest of the night was quiet and peaceful. Michael took the next day off work and the following Monday, he went in and submitted his resignation to the library.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNINGS: BEWARE THERE IS HETERO SEX HERE. CHARACTER DEATH, BUT NOT THE DEATH OF A MAJOR PLAYER IN THIS STORY.

Tracy hit the roof when Michael told her he’d quit. It wasn’t a case of money or security; God knows with the income from ‘Web’ Michael would never want for anything for the rest of his life. She was concerned that without something to occupy his thoughts and his time, Michael would sink into his delusion that he’d made love to a ghost from the past.

She relaxed somewhat when Michael reassured her he wasn’t planning on sitting on his ass getting paranoid. He had been thinking about the move for a while now. He loved his job as a researcher but it was solitary work. Michael enjoyed the interaction with other people. There were days when he’d never see another soul except librarians and clerks in old book stores until he got home in the evening. She almost fell out of her chair when he told her he’d been thinking about teaching. She really went dumb when he said he wanted to teach kids English. He was thinking maybe 6th grade. They were still young enough to not be completely cynical and yet old enough to develop outside interest.

She asked why not college? Michael told her he did not want to be involved with young men who might develop a crush on him; which only triggered another of Tracy’s buttons. Michael had not had an orgasm since that night. She knew nothing happened when she was with him and she’d asked Emmet one day and he said he just had bad dreams not wet dreams. Michael seemed to be withdrawing from life as a sexual being. He was way too young and let’s face it; he was way too hot to be celibate for the rest of his life. Tracy thought of it as falling off a horse; you got up and got right back on the damn horse before you lost your nerve. She knew the longer Michael waited to get back in the sex game, the harder it would be for him.

Tracy knew Michael as well as she knew herself. This was not the time to bring up the sex issue. She asked him if he had any idea of how to go about becoming a teacher?

“PUHLEEZE! I’m a researcher Tracy, that’s what I do; I research. Of course I know what I have to do and I’ve got all of it done except for taking my certification exam and I’m going to be doing that next Monday. If I pass…”

“When you pass,” Tracy interrupted.

“When I pass, all I have to do is wait for a school.”

“Is there any place special you would like to teach?”

“Yeah, our old school; Greater Pittsburgh.”

“Sounds perfect to me. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for you.”

Michael spent the week studying and forcing himself to keep his mind and his eyes off the picture in his desk drawer. He didn’t know his friends had found the journals and the picture. Ted and Emmet had made sure everything was picked up and back in place. Ted had his copy of the original and his corrected photo locked up in his desk. Emmet had asked Ted for a copy of both photos and Ted had agreed IF Emmet swore on Godiva’s memory that he would not jack-off to the picture of Michael’s incubus. He said he did not want to see a sexual demon take over another one of his friends. By now all of them had stopped called Michaels dark prince anything but incubus. After Jimmy had told them the meaning of the word, they all agreed it fit like a glove and that’s the term they used.

Michael took his certification exam and passed with honors. He waited a relatively short time and then got a call one day asking if he would be available to substitute at Greater Pittsburgh Elementary School. Their regular English teacher was expecting a child and had developed problems that required her to leave her position a full three months before they had expected. Michael was delighted. He never knew that Tracy had contacted several of their old teachers, one of whom was still teaching, and told them that Michael was getting certified and he wanted to teach at their old school. Michael and Tracy had both stayed active with their Elementary, Jr. High’s and Sr. Highs as they went up through the education channels. They had often returned to the schools to give talks at the request of the principal. Those teen age girls who’d been so crazy about Michael weren’t the only ones. His teachers were pretty high on him also. No one else stood a chance of getting that opening once the school board found out Michael was available.

Michael was a little nervous at first but his natural affection for kids and his love of his subject eased the first week jitters and by the end of the first month, it was as though he’d been there forever. It was a foregone conclusion when the original teacher decided she wanted to stay home with her child, that Michael would become permanent.

He did teach sixth grade but his home-room was mixed fifth and sixth grade students. That’s where he first met and fell in love with Gus Kinney. Gus was an energetic fifth grader who had a hard time being still; not because he was a troublemaker but just because he was the most curious little creature Michael had ever met. Michael was amazed at the depth and breadth of Gus’ curiosity. There didn’t seem to be one damn thing that did not intrigue or interest him. Michael was so looking forward to the next year when Gus would be in his English class. He could hardly wait to hear the questions from his favorite little wiggle worm.

By the end of the second week, it was accepted that at least once or twice a week, Michael would look up and see a thatch of blonde/brown hair peeking around the door at him followed by that wide-eyed hazel glare. Gus was making sure that his favorite teacher was free and ready for their talks. Michael used the talks as a bribe to keep Gus from monopolizing the entire home room period with his questions. He kept him after class one day and told him he would give him 15 minutes, just he and Gus every week after class and Gus could ask him all the questions’ he wanted but Gus had to restrain his classroom questions to 2 and no more. They shook hands on the deal. Michael was never sure how the ‘once a week’ became more but he had no complaints.

Michael’s first ‘parent’s night’ had been traumatic. His teaching style was a little unorthodox to say the least. He would just throw the lesson book right out the window if his kids didn’t understand something and substitute his own unique way of explaining. He was sure he was going to be face to face with a room full of outraged parents demanding to know what he was doing to their beloved little darlings. His very first pair of parents were the Clarks and their ‘little darling’ was a thorn in Michael’s paw. James had made progress but Michael felt like he was pulling teeth to get him to participate in class activities at all.

Michael braced himself, put a smile on his face (hoping he didn’t look like he was baring his fangs at them) and stood up. “Mr. and Mrs. Clark, welcome to parent’s night. It’s good to meet you.”

His hand was enveloped in a paw of sizeable proportions and the man attached to the paw seemed determined to rip Michael’s arm out of his socket during the process of shaking his hand. Mr. Clark was absolutely beaming at Michael. It was several seconds before he overcame the g-force and was able to actually hear James’ father telling him how glad they were to meet him, how James talked about him and his class all the time and how thrilled they were that their son seemed to be getting something out of one of his classes for the first time in recorded history. After that, the rest of the night was a piece of cake. About two hours into the night, Michael looked up and saw a tall, blonde woman approaching him. He stood and went through his spiel but she just smiled and said she wasn’t one of his parent’s. She was Lindsay Peterson, Gus Kinney’s mother and she wanted to thank him for his interest in her son. Things went well until Michael asked about Gus’ father. She told him he wasn’t a permanent part of Gus’ life.

“Oh I’m sorry; I didn’t realize Gus’ parents were divorced.” Michael opened his class book and made a note next to Gus’ name.”

“We aren’t divorced Mr. Novotny and when I say he’s not a permanent part I didn’t mean he wasn’t and isn’t a concerned, caring parent. I’m a single mother. When I realized I hadn’t met Mr. Right but I had met ‘The Right Career’ I knew I could handle not being married but I really wanted to have a child. Gus’ father has been my best friend since the 12th grade. I’m sure that’s a little strange to you.”

Michael grinned; a big, open, honest grin. “Oh no; not strange at all. I’ll see your 12th grade and raise you Miss Roseanne’s Day Care Center when I was just a hair over five years old. That’s when I met my best friend Tracy. She rescued me from some bullies and from that day forward she was my knight in shining armor.”

Ms. Peterson laughed out loud. “Well I guess you can understand then. When I decided to have a child on my own, I asked my friend if he would be my sperm donor. He said he would only if he could be a part of ‘our’ child’s life. It’s worked out quite well. He’s a professional photographer, very famous, and he travels all over the world on assignments; which is why he’s not a permanent part of our life. He’s gone at least seven months out of every year. When he’s back in the states, his home base is in New York but he makes sure he spends as much time as possible with Gus.”

“Well Ms. Peterson whatever your arrangements are, they are working. Gus is bright, charming and very intelligent. He keeps me on my toes all the time. I’m looking forward to having him in my class next year.”

“Not half as much as Gus is looking forward to being in your class. He asked why you couldn’t just teach him algebra and social studies as well as English.”

They both laughed at the innocence of youth. Gus’ mother stood up and turned to Michael offering her hand again. “It’s been a real pleasure and if Gus becomes too demanding with the afterhours question sessions, just let me know. I’ll reel him in a little and give you some room.”

Michael took her elegant gloved hand and told her Gus was the reason he wanted to teach in the first place. He enjoyed their question and answer sessions as much as Gus did.

All together, his first parent’s night was a huge success. When Michael got home he was quite surprised to find Tracy curled up with a book in his bed. He frowned at her when he walked in and asked, “Did we have a date or something? I could have sworn I told you tonight was parent’s night.”

“You did and no we didn’t have a date. I want to hear all about your triumph with the parental units.”

“Oh, well then let me get ready and I’ll tell you all about it.”

Michael grabbed his sleep pants out of the nightstand and a clean t-shirt and went into the bedroom to change and get ready for bed himself. He finished by brushing his teeth and headed out for a gossip session with his BFF. Before he climbed into bed, he asked Tracy if she wanted anything to eat or drink. She said yes, she wanted an apple and did he have any Prosecco? Michael told her he always kept Prosecco on hand just for her and she just smiled at him and asked him to make her a Bellini. Michael headed for the kitchen and decided he was a little hungry and could use a snack so he cut some cheese, peeled and sliced up two apples, added bunches of white and red grapes, some good crackers and made a pitcher of Bellini’s with a fresh peach sliced up in the delicious cocktail. He took the whole thing into Tracy who sat up in bed and laughed out loud with pleasure at his response to her request. He got out the lovely wicker bed tray she’d given him for a house warming present and set everything up and then climbed into bed with her.

They ate and fed each other and drank Bellini’s and Michael told her about all of his meetings and his thoughts about the parents. Every once in a while, Tracy would chime in with some comment that made Michael choke with laughter. They ate every bite and drank the last of the mixture in the pitcher. Both were slightly tipsy by now. Michael made a strong Bellini. Traditionally it was peach juice and Prosecco but he always poured several ounces of Peach Schnapps in his which took the innocent drink to a whole nother level.

He got up and moved the tray and checked the bed for cracker crumbs, set the pitcher and glasses over on his desk and then turned back to the bed. Tracy was snuggled down on her pillow looking at him.

“Are you sleeping here tonight and if so, to what do I owe the honor?”

“Because you need to interact with another human being before you become too scared to ever let anyone touch you again. You can trust me, I’m not going to get all warm and fuzzy and crazy on you and we like each other. So come over here, turn out the light and get in bed with me.”

Michael just stood there in amazement. “Tracy have you really thought this thing through all the way?”

“Michael, when do I ever NOT think something through all the way? I know what I’m doing and I know what you need so come here and stop arguing with me. You’re wasting the buzz from your phenomenal cocktails.”

Michael slowly walked toward the bed. He knew Tracy was right. He was scared to death of the idea of sex with anyone; male or female. He also knew if he didn’t do something soon, he might never be able to enjoy that part of his nature ever again and the thought left him depressed and almost hopeless. He did trust Tracy. He loved her, he knew that. He took a deep breath and turned off the night light. He slipped into the warm nest she’d created for him. She slid over until her head was resting on his shoulder. He was terrified but he slowly put his arms around her and held her for a while. Soon he relaxed; after all, this was just Tracy; his best friend. She would not demand more of him that he could produce. He kissed her forehead and then caught her mouth in a gentle, undemanding kiss. They took it very slow and very easy. There was a lot of laughter and a lot of soft remarks and softer touches. Michael decided that making love to a female depended a lot on the female. If it was the right one, it was lots of fun. Instead of saying ‘good night’, Michael kissed his friend lovingly and said, ‘Thank You’. They both knew what for.

****************

The next few months were wonderful times not just for Michael but for all of them. Emmet and Ted never said a word but they knew Michael and Tracy had added a new dimension to their relationship. Michael was becoming the old Michael but with a new adult awareness and confidence. Jimmy was becoming more and more a dear close friend and less and less the ‘Doctor’.

There was only one little glitch in things and that happened when Michael decided he should make an honest woman out of Tracy so he told her he thought they ought to get married. She hit the roof and called him every name in the book. She flatly refused to speak to him for several days and needless to say, the sex stopped dead. Michael finally had the good sense to go to her and apologize profusely for his appalling behavior and swear on his mother’s life he would never, ever ask her to marry him again. She make him sweat for another day or so and then told him if he ever did anything that stupid again, she would never speak to him. Later that night, she told him she really thought he would hold out for a few more days. Then she grinned at him and asked him if the sex was really that good. He just grinned back and said, “What do you think?”

Life was good so of course something had to happen. For once, Lady Luck was kind to the friends and it didn’t happen directly to them.

One day, Michael was called out of his class. His principal was out in the hall with a police officer. He told Michael he was needed and that a substitute would finish the rest of his class. Michael got a cold sick feeling in the pit of his stomach but he managed to keep his composure as long as they were in the hall where any passing child could see them. As soon as they reached the principal’s office Michael turned around and faced the officer.

“Okay, no more stalling. What’s happened? Why have you pulled me out of my class? Is it my mother, my uncle? What is going on?”

The office raised his hand and said, “Mr. Novotny, please; it’s no one close to you. There has been a terrible accident and one of the students here at the school needs someone with him. We’re waiting for a Miss Melanie Marcus but her office says she’s in with the Grand Jury and they cannot by law get in touch with her. I’m told you know a young 5th grader named Gus Kinney. Is that right?”

“Yes of course I know Gus; he’s in my homeroom and he’s going to be in my English class next year. What’s happened? Who is Melanie Marcus and why don’t you just get Gus’ mother?”

“Mr. Novotny, I’m really sorry to have to tell you this but Gus’ mother was killed in the accident. We found a note in her purse and there was a big page in her Day-Timer saying that Ms. Melanie Marcus should be contacted if she or her son had an accident. Like I said, we’re trying to get to Ms. Marcus but we really need to notify her son. We can’t do that unless he has someone with him he trusts and from what your principal tells me, that’s you.”

Michael was too stunned to even answer the officer. He just sat heavily down in the chair in front of Principal Jefferson’s desk. “My god, I was just talking to her last week. She always stops in to visit on parent’s night because she knows how much I like her son. We talk about his imagination and how to develop it and how to keep him interested but directed. Gus is a smart and curious young kid. He’s just a joy to be around and he loves his mom. I can’t believe that beautiful, intelligent woman is gone.”

The officer shuffled his feet a little and said, “Would you be willing to be here with Gus when we tell him and wait with him until Ms. Marcus can be located?”

“Of course I will; whatever Gus needs!”

For the rest of his life Michael never ever wanted to remember or repeat the next few hours. They got Gus out of his class and brought him into the office. In the end, the principal and the officer could not bring themselves to say what needed to be said and it was left to Michael to take Gus on his lap and tell him that his mother had been killed in a car accident. Gus had thrown both arms around Michael and hung on to him with all his strength. He sobbed and cried into Michael’s neck and shoulder until his shirt was soaked. Michael didn’t know what the hell to do so in the end, he did exactly the right thing. He held Gus just as tight as Gus was holding him and he cried right along with him. He didn’t tell him to stop or that everything would be all right. He knew it wouldn’t be. Nothing would ever be the same for Gus Kinney again after this moment. But if he had anything to say, he would make damn sure that Gus knew he had one friend who would always be there and would always tell him the truth.

The officer and Principal Jefferson quietly left the office and left them alone; after the principal got a box of Kleenex and brought it over to Michael. He sat it on the desk beside him and then stroked his hand over Gus head.

“I’m so very sorry Gus. Your mother was a kind, wonderful woman and it was a pleasure to know her and it’s a pleasure to have you here at this school.”

Sometime later, Gus finally raised his head from Michael’s neck and tried to wipe his eyes. Michael reached for the box and got a handful of tissues and carefully wiped Gus’ eyes and then held them for him to blow his nose. Then he got another handful and did the same for himself.

“Why are you crying Mr. Novotny?”

“I’m crying because I knew your mother and liked her very much. I’m crying because you’re my friend and anything that hurts you hurts me. I’m crying because the world has lost a wonderful human being and there just aren’t enough of them.”

Gus hiccupped and settled his head back on Michael’s shoulder. He still had his arms around Michael’s neck but at least he wasn’t strangling him anymore. He’d cried so hard he’d just exhausted himself. Michael stood up holding the worn out child in his arms and moved over to the couch. He tried to lay Gus down but Gus would not let go of him so he sat down and got him and the sad little boy arranged as comfortably as he could. He just sat there holding Gus while he slept and let out little sobs in his sleep.

He had no idea how much time had gone by when the door opened and a small dark-haired woman came into the office. She walked over to the couch and sat down on the coffee table in front of the couch. She reached out and gently brushed Gus hair off his face. She had been crying and the tears were very visible on her face. They continued to fall as she just looked at Gus with such love in her eyes.

Michael tried to sit up a little but Gus fussed so he just relaxed back against the couch and smiled at the woman. She tried to smile back.

“I’m Melanie Marcus. I’m guessing you must be the amazing Mr. Novotny. Gus talks about you all the time. I think Linds was almost jealous of you once or twice.”

“Yeah, I am and she had nothing to be jealous about. Gus adored his mom. He talked about her all the time; her and his dad. Has anyone notified his father?”

“Yes, I called him as soon as I got out of the Jury room and spoke with the police. He’s coming in from Nairobi as quickly as he can catch a plane but it’s not like JFK. They don’t run real often. How did Gus…I mean is he…”

“He’s a heart-broken little boy who had to hear from a stranger that the mother he loves is never going to be with him again. His life has been ripped up and he’s lost right now. But I want you to know, I will do anything I can to help him and you get through this.”

“I wouldn’t expect anything less from the man Gus calls the greatest teacher ever.”

Gus continued to sleep and both adults postponed the moment when they had to wake him to the painful reality of his new life. They talked about Lindsay and Gus. Melanie and Lindsay had been friends since college. They were as close as sisters. Melanie had not wanted her to conceive Gus with Brian Kinney; she thought Lindsay did it for the wrong reasons but Lindsay had her heart set on Brian being the father.

“Of course, the minute I laid eyes on Gus, I was completely smitten. I’ve been in love with him since the moment he was born. It’s all written in Lindsay’s will. Of course, his father will be his sole guardian but I doubt if he will want to give up his glamorous life to take care of an eleven year old boy so I was named as his co-guardian and I’m pretty sure Brian will let him live with me. I don’t want his life to change completely. It’s going to be bad enough without Linds but to take him away from his life and friends here; his school. I’m hoping Kinney will see that it’s in Gus best interests to leave him with me. But then you just never know with him.”

“You don’t sound like a fan of Mr. Kinney.”

“He’s a spoiled, arrogant, son-of-a-bitch who thinks the world revolves around him and anyone who doesn’t kiss his ass isn’t worth his time.”

“Ms. Marcus, I don’t know Gus’ father but I can’t think it’s a good thing for you to be saying things like that about his dad if he loves him as much as he seems to.”

“Don’t worry Mr. Novotny. I know how much he’s going to need a connection with his father and I will keep my opinions to myself. I love Gus too much to hurt him anymore than he’s already hurting.”

The two adults sat there for another 30 minutes or so talking quietly until Gus woke up to his new reality.


	8. Chapter 8

Everybody suffered for the next week; Michael because of his close connection to Gus and the four friends because of their close connection to Michael. Michael had to tell his homeroom about the death of Gus’ mother. He also had to talk to the class he’d been teaching when he was pulled out. Gus was well-known and well-liked in the school. Even if he hadn’t been, for kids in this age bracket, the idea of one of their parents dying was pretty traumatic. The whole school was off kilter. It didn’t help that Michael was being called all the time by Melanie to help with Gus. Michael didn’t mind at all. He’d meant it when he said he would do anything and everything to help them get through until Gus’ father could get back to the states.

That was another problem. Between civil wars on the African continent and terrorist attacks and just the general locations involved, trying to get Mr. Kinney home was becoming a logistical nightmare.

Four nights after Lindsay Peterson died in that car crash, Michael got a call at home from an almost hysterical Melanie. It took a while to calm her down but when he did, Michael wished he had the luxury of having hysterics himself. Melanie had received a call from the officers investigating the crash. The driver who’d hit Lindsay’s car head-on blew more than twice the legal limit for alcohol. He was drunk as a skunk and had limped away from the accident he’d caused with a broken ankle. Michael asked her what he could do to help. She said she didn’t want Gus to see her falling apart like this. Would Michael come over and stay with him while she cried her eyes out and got it out of her system? Michael said of course he would.

Michael decided later that either Tracy was getting her period or every woman in the world seemed to become irrational at exactly the same time. Of course the fact that he was climbing out of their warm, comfy bed for the fifth night in a row could have had something to do with it. She got a little catty and asked Michael how much time he was spending comforting Gus and how much went to Ms. Marcus. Michael informed her she was way out of line and that was not the right thing to say to Tracy. She informed him that she was getting a little tired of Michael jumping every time Melanie called. She knew he needed to be there for Gus but Jesus, if the woman couldn’t handle the kid now how the hell did she think she was going to be able to handle him when he began to get over his loss and started acting like a real little boy again. Things escalated from there and it ended with Tracy getting up and going back to sleep at her place for the first time in months. Michael threw his clothes on and rushed over to be with Gus.

His night just got better and better. He’d finally gotten Gus to sleep and stretched out beside him for a little cat nap of his own. He woke up to the sound of Gus’ crying. He gently rubbed the bony little back and finally just got up, lifted the covers, wrapped a soft blanket around the sad little boy and carried him over to the big rocking chair in his bedroom. He sat and rocked Gus until the sobs quieted down into occasional whimpers. At last there was silence. Michael thought Gus had gone back to sleep but when he looked down at the little boy he was wide awake and just staring at Michael with those big hazel eyes.

“I’m sorry I’m being such a baby about this. I know I’m taking too much of your time.”

Michael smiled down at his little friend. “You’re not a baby Gus. You’re a brave little boy who’s just lost the most important person in the whole world. My time is yours as long as you need me.”

“I’ll be okay when my daddy gets home. He always makes things better. I just miss him you know? He’s gone so much of the time and when he’s home he does everything with me and that makes the time with him better but it makes the time away from him a lot worse. Do you know what I mean?”

“Yeah Gus, I know exactly what you mean. I never knew my father. He died before I was born but my Uncle Vic has always been like a dad to me. He lived in New York for years and he tried so hard to get back to Pittsburgh every couple of months or so to spend time with me. It was like Christmas and the 4th of July when he was here and just a vast wasteland when he went back to New York.”

Gus smiled contentedly, “You do know how I feel. That’s it exactly; Christmas and the 4th of July. I know Melanie doesn’t like my dad.”

Michael couldn’t repress the small jump he made when Gus said that. “Has she said anything bad about your dad to you?”

“No she never does but I can see the expression on her face when she talks to him on the phone and I used to hear her and Mom talking about him. She thinks he’s a selfish prick, whatever that means; I know from the tone of her voice that’s not a good thing to say about someone. But she doesn’t know him like Mom and I did. He’s not selfish. He’s offered again and again to give up his job and move back here to be here if we need him. Mom would never let him. She said he wouldn’t be Brian Kinney if he gave up something he loved as much as he loved his traveling. I know my daddy loves me because he told her he loved us more than he would ever love his job. She just smiled; I could see that made her happy and told him to keep traveling for a while longer. I promise when he gets here I won’t keep hanging on to you like this. He’ll keep the nightmares away.”

Michael hugged the little boy tightly. “I’m going to be so happy when your daddy gets here just because you need him so much but you do know I’m going to be sad that you won’t need me any longer.”

“I’ll always need my most favorite teacher. Always and Always. I promise!”

Michael made it back to his place around 7.00am that morning. He was almost pathetically grateful it was Saturday and he didn’t have classes. He dropped his clothes on the floor and crawled into his cold, lonely bed. He tossed and turned for almost 30 minutes and was just about to get up when his door opened and Tracy stepped in. She walked over to the bed and asked him if he needed a bed-warmer. Michael just smiled at her and held the covers up. She slipped in next to him, wrapped her arms around him and said she was sorry she’d been such a bitch. “I can’t believe I’m about to say this but I think I’m a little jealous.”

“How can you be jealous of a little boy who just lost his mother?”

“I’m not jealous of Gus you idiot. I’m jealous of that woman. I still think she’s just using Gus as an excuse to get you under the same roof with her. Just remember you’re gay and I’m the only exception to that rule. You’re not bi-sexual, you’re Tracy-sexual. You got it?”

Michael laughed out loud. God he did love this crazy woman. “I got it babe. It’s just you and me; BFF’s.”

*************************

Seven days after the accident, Brian Kinney finally made it back to Pittsburgh. Melanie called Michael early that evening to tell him Gus' father was there and he could get a good night’s sleep for a change. He asked her if there were any details about the service as yet. She said no; Brian would be making all the arrangements the next day and he would be notified just as soon as they had things finalized. Michael was looking forward to meeting the elusive Brian Kinney but between his classes and all the legal necessities associated with Lindsay’s death they kept missing each other. Michael hated the thought that their first meeting would be at Lindsay’s funeral but as it happened, that wasn’t the case.

The day of Lindsay’s funeral dawned bright and beautiful. The weather was perfect. Michael and his friends were all planning to attend and they were up fixing breakfast when the phone rang. It was Debbie. Vic had just been rushed to Allegheny General in an ambulance. Michael dropped everything and got ready to head out to the hospital. His friends got ready to go with him. He tried to get them to go ahead and go to the service but they all reminded him that they loved Vic almost as much as he did and they needed to be there with him. He hugged everyone and said, they needed to finish their breakfast because they had no idea how long they would be sitting there waiting. They managed to choke down some bacon, eggs and pancakes. Jimmy walked through the door in the middle of everything. He’d come over to go with them to the funeral. He said he would go with them to the hospital. He would be able to find out what was going on with Vic and he felt he would be of more help there.

For almost two weeks it was touch and go with Vic. He was in a coma most of the time. They all took turns being there for Michael and Debbie. They only left his side to go to the bathroom and get a shower. Michael called Gus and explained to him what had happened and why he wasn’t there at the funeral. As soon as he said his Uncle Vic was in the hospital, Gus understood what was going on. He told Michael it was okay, he’d been with him when he needed him the most and maybe they could come to the graveyard sometime together, just the two of them and Michael could say good-bye to his mom then. Michael managed to swallow the huge lump in his throat and said he’d like that very much.

He wrote a letter to Gus’ father expressing his sympathy and telling him that only something as important as his Uncle’s illness could have kept him from being there to meet him. Much to his surprise, he got a letter back thanking him for his care and support for Gus during that awful week. His dad said he felt like he knew Michael from the stories he and Lindsay had heard from Gus. He finished by saying he was looking forward to meeting someone who’d made such an impression on his son.

Michael kept in daily touch with Gus via their cell phones but every time he called, his dad was either not home yet or had just left. By the time they knew for sure Vic was out of the woods, school was out and Gus had gone on a long trip with his father.

Michael spent the summer moving his mother and his uncle to a new house. Vic was very weak and his lungs had been badly compromised by the pneumonia. Stairs were almost impossible for him. The house Michael had grown up in was just a simple two story row house with no room to expand and almost no yard to speak of. He found them a perfect 3 bedroom, 2 and a half bath house in the same neighborhood. He had the porch rebuilt so the stairs were shallow with nice solid rails that Vic could maneuver with very little difficulty. It was ideal for them; it had two master suites at opposite ends of the house with a big open concept great room and kitchen between the bedrooms. There was a lovely roofed patio so Vic could sit outside in nice weather. Needless to say, Michael’s secret identity was out of the closet and for the first time in recorded history, Debbie was a loss for words. When she realized that her son had written the book she’d read at least 5 times; she was speechless. Michael often thought the money he’d gotten from ‘Web’ was great but shutting Debbie Novotny up; priceless.

When school started in September, Michael was hoping Gus would be one of his students. Sure enough, there was that mop of blond/brown hair and the big hazel eyes. They grinned at each other as Michael welcomed his classes and explained what they would be learning for the next semester. Gus waited until everyone had finished talking with his teacher and as soon as the last kid had closed the door behind them, he launched himself at Michael so hard he almost knocked him down. The two friends hugged each other and just held on for a while. At last Michael pulled back and took a good look at him. Gus wasn’t a little boy any more. His hair was bleached several shades lighter from being in the sun for months. He was taller and thinner. His build was long and lean like his mother’s. He had the sparkle back in his eyes even though a shadow of sadness would flare out every once in a while.

Michael asked about his father. Gus told him he was trying to get all his assignments completed so he could spend more time with him but in his dad’s line of work, assignments were made months before the actual dates. Right now it was September but his dad was in Milan shooting Spring Fashions. He wasn’t taking any new assignments but he was so popular, he still had a lot of things to finish up. Gus said very seriously that he and his father had talked things over and agreed that he would work as hard as he could for the next six months and try to get it all completed. Then he would see what he could get closer to home. Michael was torn between being proud of this serious young man and sad to see the departure of the little boy with the galaxy sized curiosity.

Things settled into a routine. September turned into October and then Thanksgiving was upon them. That’s when Michael’s world turned a little surreal. He and Gus were having one of their famous after-hours talks when Gus suddenly asked him if he liked men.


	9. Chapter 9

_**“Mr. Novotny, do you like men?”** _

****************

If there was one thing Michael had learned during his friendship with Gus, it was that things were never as simple as they seemed. Sometimes he ping-ponged from subject to subject just because that’s the way his mind worked but there were times when the little boy turned devious and would ask the most outrageous question with a sinister reason in mind. Until Michael figured out the reason behind this particular question, he was going to hedge his bets about an answer.

“In what context are you asking the question Gus?”

“I don’t know what that means…context.”

“That means why are you asking the question? Do you mean do I like men or women better as friends or colleagues or do I get along better with men than with women? “

There was a long silence. Gus squirmed a little and then got up and walked around the classroom. Michael didn’t say a word; he just waited patiently for Gus to answer him. At last, Gus came back and sat down in the chair next to Michael’s desk.

“Mr. Novotny, I need to tell you something but you have to promise to keep it a secret just between you and me…okay?”

“As long as you’re not about to confess to a crime of course I’ll keep your secret Gus. You know you can trust me.”

“Yeah I do but it’s not my secret, it’s my dad’s. He’s gay. That’s why he and my mom didn’t get married. He offered after I was born but she said no; she knew he would be settling for something that wasn’t real to him and she wouldn’t do that. The thing is; as long as he’s traveling, he can be himself. People in his profession are a lot more used to alternating, uh allergic; uh oh heck…what’s the word I want?”

Michael smiled at his friend. Most of the time he completely forgot that Gus was only 12 years old but then something like this came along and suddenly he was a little boy again trying to express himself in adult terms.

“I think you mean alternative as in ‘alternative life styles’.”

“Yes, that’s it exactly. That’s what I mean. When he’s out of the states, he meets a lot of men and he doesn’t have to hide who or what he is but he’s been spending so much time here that he’s getting lonesome. Besides I think he’s about ready to settle down even if he does say he doesn’t ‘do boyfriends’. I think you would be just perfect for him and for me too. If I’m going to have two daddies, I can’t imagine anyone more perfect than you. I know he will like you and I’m sure you will like him. After all, you like me and everyone says I look just like him. But I can’t get you two together if you don’t like men; I mean like men like SPECIAL like men, you know?”

“Oh brother do you ever need my English class if that last sentence is any indication of your convoluted thinking. But believe it or not, I do know what you mean and what you are trying to say. You do understand Gus that you are asking me if I’m gay and in this day and age, that’s not something people like to admit to openly.”

“I know and you know I would never pry or tell any of your secrets to anyone else. I can keep my mouth shut.”

“Okay then, yes I do like men but as a teacher I have to be even more careful than most gay men. If there was ever the slightest hint that I was a homosexual, I would never be able to teach again and I love this. Working with you guys, making you see the beauty and power of words is the biggest rush in the world to me.”

“Would you please come have dinner with us and meet my dad? I know if you two just talk to each other you will see that you both have a lot in common. Besides me that is.”

“Gus I would love to meet your dad but not as a blind date. I always like to know the parents of my students and you and your father are no exception. I don’t think it would be proper for me to have dinner at your place. I’ve never done that with any of my other students and I don’t think I should start now. Why don’t you just have him come to the next parent’s night and we can meet each other here in the classroom?”

“Uh no I don’t think that would work at all. Could you just come over to our house and talk with him; no dinner. I know you did that with Jimmy Clark’s folks. You could do that with mine couldn’t you?”

Michael just laughed and shook his head. “Well at least I know you know the meaning of persistent. All right, I’ll drop by your house and meet your dad. We do need to talk about your progress and what he’s looking for you to get out of this class anyway. With his work schedule, it’s probably easier for me to come to your place than for him to try to make it during school hours.”

Gus was so happy, he forgot he was now an advanced 12 years of age and jumped up and down like the kid he still was. He said he would talk to his dad and get back to him. When he left the classroom, Michael was shaking his head trying to figure out when his student had turned into his matchmaker.

As it turned out, trying to get Michael and Gus’ father together was not the easiest task in the world. They made at least 3 tentative appointments but each time something came up and one or the other had to cancel. One day around 5:45pm, Michael’s cell phone rang. It was not a number he recognized but he answered anyway. The lady on the other end introduced herself as Cynthia Walker, personal assistant to Brian Kinney. She said she knew he and Brian had been trying to meet to talk about Gus and she realized it was awfully short notice but Brian was going to be at the Chez Fontaine for dinner at 7.00 pm and his dinner guest was stuck in the airport in Denver. Would it be possible for Michael to meet Mr. Kinney at the restaurant? They could have dinner and discuss Gus and his plans for the new semester.

Michael was not too pleased with this idea. After all, he’d told Gus he didn’t do dinner with parents of his students. He was a little hesitant with the nice lady on the line telling her he wasn’t sure if it would be a good idea but she said she knew Brian was anxious to talk to him about Gus and he was leaving the next day for 4 weeks in Europe. This was the only time they would have to talk without interruptions. Reluctantly, Michael agreed. She told him to give his name to the maitre d’ when he arrived at the restaurant and tell him he was a guest of Mr. Kinney. He thanked her and headed for his home as quickly as possible. Chez Fontaine was a pretty high class restaurant and he needed to change his clothes.

He cut time real close but he got to the restaurant with about 3 minutes to spare. Since he came in a cab, he didn’t have to worry about parking and went inside. He gave his name to the beautifully dressed penguin at the podium inside the restaurant. The minute he said he was meeting Brian Kinney, the guy almost gushed on him. He personally escorted him to Mr. Kinney’s table which happened to be empty. They both looked around but the table was still empty. Just as Michael was about to say to hell with it, a young waiter came up and said Mr. Kinney had been called away to take a call. If Mr. Novotny would please be seated, he would be with him as quickly as possible. Michael did take a seat. The young waiter said he’d send their wine steward over to take Michael’s drink order at once.

Michael just barely had time to get comfortable and reach for his napkin when the steward was there asking him what he would like. Michael said he wanted a Jack Daniels and coke and a voice behind the waiter said he’d take the same. The waiter stepped aside and Michael was looking straight into the hazel eyes of Gus’ father; his incubus. There was complete silence then Mr. Kinney said, “Never mind the coke just bring me the JD straight on the rocks.”

Michael tried to get his mouth to work and was just barely able to tell the steward to skip the coke on his also. He’d take his drink straight. His dark prince sat down in the chair across the table from him and they just sat there, looking at each other.

Michael was very proud that he seemed to recover enough to make the first move. “So you’re Brian Kinney, Gus’ father.”

Evidently they had been looking at each other longer than they thought because suddenly their drinks were being served. Brian picked his up and downed it. He handed the glass to the waiter and asked for another one. He took a sip of water and in a semi-normal voice said, “And you’re Mr. Novotny, my son’s favorite teacher and according to Melanie Marcus the guardian angel who kept him together until I could get home to him.”

As the waiter turned away, Michael downed his drink also and called the waiter back to take his glass and bring him another one; neat on the rocks.

The waiter was back with their drinks. Michael downed his in one gulp, handed the glass to the waiter and told him to bring him another. The waiter was obviously a little surprised by their strange behavior because he asked if they would like him to bring them the bottle. Brian glared at him and he excused himself and started to leave but Brian told him to bring them both a third drink and Michael added, “And put coke in mine this time.”

Brian raised an eyebrow at him and he replied, “Hey surprise or no surprise, I haven’t had anything to eat since 10.00am this morning and that much hard liquor on an empty stomach is not a good thing believe me.”

Brian asked him if he would like an appetizer to soak up some of the alcohol and Michael said he thought that would be a great idea. When the waiter returned with their drinks, Brian told him to bring them some bruschetta and stuffed mushrooms as quickly as possible.

Michael was stunned. Without asking him anything Brian Kinney had just ordered his all time favorite appetizers. He looked closely at his dream man. “Are those favorites of yours?”

“Not really, I don’t usually order appetizers.”

“Then why did you order them for me?”

“You said you needed something in your stomach. I just thought that would be light and not too filling. Look if you don’t like them I’ll call the waiter back and you can get anything you want.”

“No, No don’t do that. They both just happen to be my favorites. I can make a meal on them without ever getting to the entrée’s.”

“Well, that’s good then. What’s your first name? I mean you know I’m Brian Kinney but all I know is Mr. Novotny the English teacher.”

“I’m Michael; Michael Novotny.”

Brian looked at him and then said, “The archangel Michael; it fits.”

“Look Mr. Kinney…”

“Oh come on Michael, I’ve had my tongue up your ass, don’t you think you could bring yourself to call me Brian?”

Michael threw his napkin down on the table and started to get up. “This is a bad idea. I think we should just say good night and I should leave.”

Brian reached across the table and grabbed Michael’s wrist. “Please don’t go. I’m sorry, that was pretty crude of me and I didn’t mean…I guess this is a pretty big shock for both of us.”

“You got that right. Who in the hell would have thought you’d turn out to be one of my student’s parents? And I wasn't even teaching then!”

The waiter came back with their food. Brian looked at Michael’s dark liquid and then his amber drink and asked the waiter to bring him a glass of coke. He asked Michael if he wanted anymore JD’s and Michael said, no; three were enough for him. He told the waiter just a glass of coke for him and they would let him know when they were ready to order dinner.

Suddenly in a rush of words almost as though he couldn’t stop himself, Brian looked up into Michael’s eyes and asked, “Why did you leave like that? Why didn’t you stay?”

“I don’t know; yes I do, I was scared. I was so damn scared I thought I was going to throw up in the bed.”

“What were you scared of? Surely you weren’t afraid of me? My God I never gave you any reason to fear me.”

“Brian, the condom broke and we kept on fucking. I woke up in more pain than I’d ever felt before. It didn’t help at all that I have an uncle with AIDS and I’ve seen what he’s had to go through. I was covered with bite marks, my lip was a mess and I knew when I tried to move my ass that it was probably torn. And all I could think of was you talking about the hundreds of men you’d fucked. You gave me every reason in the world to fear you.”

“If you will remember, I tried to stop when we found the broken condom. You were the one who pulled me down and kissed me until I couldn’t think straight.”

“I know; I’m not putting all the blame on you. I was just as responsible, maybe more responsible than you.”

There was silence at the table. They both helped themselves to the appetizers and chewed thoughtfully for a while.

Finally Michael asked, “What did you do when you woke up and found me gone?”

“I took a shower and got ready to catch my plane.”

Michael knew he felt his heart break right then and there. He tried to smile and said, “Same old, same old huh?”

“Yeah pretty much with one small difference.”

“What was that?”

“I sat on the floor of that fucking shower and cried for you and what we could have had if you’d just stayed.”

Michael dropped his piece of bread. “You cried…for me?”

“Yeah, I cried for you.”

“What do you mean what we could have had?”

“I knew I was too rough those last few times and that you were probably going to wake up sore and in pain. I was going to cancel my flight and put you in the Jacuzzi tub in the bathroom and soak your aches away. Then I was going to care for your wounds even if I had to call the hotel doctor and then I was going to hold you in my arms for the rest of the day while we got acquainted. A little backwards perhaps but I knew after that spectacular blow job that you were going to be a lot more than a casual trick.”

Michael felt the tears pool in his eyes. He would not cry in a public restaurant. He just would not. He pulled himself together and looked at his beautiful dark stranger; his incubus. “It really did mean something to you too.”

Brian felt his pulse pick up speed at the ‘too’ in Michael’s sentence. Maybe they could still salvage something out of this whole mess.

“Are you ready to order dinner now?”

“Nah, I’d really like some more of the bread and mushrooms.”

“Look, I’m not trying to start anything here but why don’t we get them to go and go back to my place. I think we need to get some things straightened out between us and while at first this seemed like a good idea, I’m beginning to think we need to talk about these things in private.”

“What about Gus? I don’t want him to overhear something he couldn’t possibly understand. He thinks we’re just perfect for each other.”

“Yeah I know; believe me I know. I’ve been subjected to weeks of non-stop propaganda about the great, smart, wonderful, adorable Mr. Novotny. He’s a great kid but when he gets an idea in his head he’s like a little pit bull. He’s away at a week-end baseball camp.”

Michael was pretty sure that being alone with Brian Kinney in his home was not a good idea but he did want to know more about him and after all, once bitten twice shy. He’d fallen for his line once; surely he wouldn’t do it again. Would he?


	10. Chapter 10

_**Michael was pretty sure that being alone with Brian Kinney in his home was not a good idea but he did want to know more about him and after all, once bitten twice shy. He’d fallen for his line once; surely he wouldn’t do it again. Would he?** _

****************

Michael woke up slowly. He realized he wasn’t home in his bed and he wasn’t in Tracy’s bed or Emmet’s. Who the hell’s bed was he in?

He opened his eyes. He didn’t recognize the room. He turned his head and found himself looking into a pair of hazel eyes that were rapidly becoming his salvation and damnation at the same time. His eyes snapped wide open. He was lying on his stomach and he rose up on his forearms. A lot of things became immediately clear. He was naked. His bed partner was naked. His bed partner had his hand on his ass and was gently caressing it and squeezing his cheeks AND his partner was wide awake and watching with a small smile on his face.

SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. DOUBLE SHIT SHIT SHIT SHIT. He did, he did fall for his line again and here he was again; stark naked in bed with a sexual demon from another world.

Michael just fell back down on his pillow with a groan. “I would say please tell me we didn’t do it again but it’s pretty obvious we did.”

Brian Kinney smiled at him with an expression of pure contentment on his face. “Well that all depends on what you think we did.”

“Brian, I’m naked. You’re naked. You have your hand on my ass rubbing your finger over my hole. I think it’s pretty fuckin’ obvious what we did.”

“Ah but my angel, appearances can be deceiving you know. Let’s evaluate the situation shall we? It’s true we’re both naked and we are both in the same bed. I do have my hand on your ass however I would argue that your ass is the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen and it’s not humanly possible to have that ass naked and within reach and not want to fondle it. Now, remembering our last encounter let me ask you a few questions. Does your ass hurt?”

Michael thought for a second and then gently squeezed his buttocks together. No pain. “No, no it doesn’t hurt.”

“Does it burn or itch?”

“No, it appears to be in good shape.”

“OH MY GOD, it is in SUCH good shape, it makes my mouth water.”

“Will you please be serious?”

“I have never been more serious in my life.”

There was silence in the room for a while. Michael rolled over and faced his incubus. “Is this going to happen every time we get in a room alone together because if the answer is yes then you can never ever come to parents night at school.”

Brian leaned forward and kissed Michael. It wasn’t a teeth, tongue, wet, designed to light a fire, kiss. It was warm and soft and sweet and…loving. “If we’re both very very very good it will happen to us for the rest of our lives.”

“Wait, just wait a minute. You’re moving way too fast for me. I’m not even sure how I got here in your bed and you’re talking about the rest of our lives?”

Brian laughed out loud with pleasure. He pulled Michael over so he was resting partly on top of him and wrapped both arms around him.

“We got back here with a box of bruschetta and stuffed mushrooms. We both had the best intentions in the world. You set the boxes down on the coffee table and I went to get us some beers, plates and forks. When I got back you were just standing there in the middle of the room looking around. I laid my stuff down next to the boxes and walked over and asked if I could take your jacket. You slipped out of it and handed it to me but our hands touched and I know I felt like someone had stuck an electric cattle prod up my butt and turned on the switch. I swear I felt the hairs on my arms and the back of my neck stand up. You must have felt it too because you dropped your coat and just walked into my arms. You put your arms around me and kissed me and that was it. We kissed our way in here. We stripped each other off and got into bed together.”

Michael interrupted him, “Did you use a condom and did it break this time?”

“No I didn’t use a condom.”

Michael tried to pull away from him and sit up but Brian just held him closer and tighter.

“Relax! I would never do anything to put you in danger. I didn’t use a condom because there was no penetration. We were still kissing. I didn’t think I would ever get enough of the taste of your sweet mouth. You were making the hottest little moans and sighs and rubbing against me. Our cocks started rubbing together and I reached down and took them both in my hand. The heads were rubbing back and forth over each other and it was the most erotic thing I’ve ever felt. Then you put your hand over mine and we both began to pump together. WE came all over each other. I got up to get a washcloth to clean us up and when I got back, you were sleeping like a baby. I washed you down and then me and climbed back into bed and I’ve been touching, watching and petting you ever since.”

Michael had relaxed as he listened to Brian talk and by the time he finished he was sprawled across his chest with his face in his neck and his lips against his throat. Brian let out a happy little sigh when he felt Michaels lips nibble at his neck.

“What do we do now?”

“Well, since I know my son is well taken care of and isn’t going to be home until sometime tomorrow night, I say we stay right here and get acquainted and make love and get to know each other.”

“I thought you were leaving town for four weeks in Europe.”

“I was and I still am but when this camp opportunity came up, I had Cynthia change my flight plans so I wouldn’t leave until after Gus was back home and Melanie was with him. My son comes first no matter who or what is happening. It’s going to be a little more complicated now because he’s not the only person I have to consider anymore. Now I have you to keep safe and happy as well as him. Which is why I think one of the things we need to talk about in the next two days is our living arrangements. It will be a lot easier for all of us if we lived together. Then I would have both you and Gus on the same schedule and in the same place. He’d much rather be with you than Melanie any old day.”

Michael was out of Brian’s arms and sitting straight up in bed before Brian even realized he was moving.

“Wait! Wait just a fuckin’ minute here. It hasn’t been even 10 hours since I discovered my incubus was also my favorite student’s father. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around that little tidbit, and then I make the mistake of agreeing to go to your home to talk with you and act like a slut the minute I get you alone and now you’re talking about us living together. What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing is wrong with me Michael. You’re right! Right for me and my son. I think this was meant to be; something like Fate or Destiny maybe but I know as sure as I know my name is Brian Kinney that you and I are two separate parts of one whole. You can fight it all you want but it’s gonna happen. I say we just lay back and enjoy the happening. And while we’re on the subject what is it that you keep calling me?”

“What? Oh, incubus. That’s a male sexual demon who slips into the beds of women and has sex with them. Of course, leave it to you to completely skew the whole concept to fit your needs. An incubus is completely irresistible. No one can deny him or his sexual appetites and that fits you to a ‘T’.”

“Hmm, incubus. I like it. But I have to say, it could apply to you also you know. You slipped into my bed and completely ruined me for other men. No one could ever live up to you and that mouth of yours or the way you move when you’re right on the edge of shooting your load all over me. You make these noises that go right to my cock and just make me want to fuck you forever. Except when it’s over, I realize it’s not just fucking. It’s so much more than that. You asked what was wrong with me. You’re what’s wrong and right with me. The one good thing about having had as many men as I have is that I know when I’ve found the one diamond in a sea of zirconium. You’re it. You’re my diamond, my incubus. I want to live with you and raise my son with you. If we have a chance, I wouldn’t mind having another kid with you. I want it all and I want it now. I don’t want to wait any longer.”

“Brian, you’re job takes you all over the world. I’m a 6th grade English teacher in Pittsburgh. I love my job and if it ever got out that I was gay and living with a man and had his son in my class, I would lose everything I ever wanted.”

“Everything? What about me and Gus? Don’t you want us?”

“Dammit, that’s not fair. You know damn well I want you. I want both of you.”

“Then why can’t you teach an older grade? You know there are teachers at Carnegie that are openly gay and they're not penalized for their sexuality. According to Gus, you’re such a good teacher you could make a rock learn how to properly conjugate a sentence.”

There was silence in the room. Michael was taking in everything Brian had said. He had to admit the idea of teaching at a college level was appealing. The main reason he’d decided on 6th graders was because he was trying to deny his own gayness. He was afraid he might become interested in someone and then he’d be hurt again. He shivered and realized he was still sitting up in the bed and he was still naked and he was cold. He settled back down in Brian’s arms. He knew when he felt his partner pull the covers up over his shoulders and start to rub his chilled skin that he was well on his way to losing this battle. When he felt Brian roll him over on his back and then start to kiss him while rubbing his hand over his nipples and down his side to his ass, he figured he might as well start waving a white flag. He knew he was gonna surrender without firing a single shot. As he felt his dick begin to fill and stiffen between their bodies, he rethought that remark. He was pretty sure he was going to be firing off something; maybe more than once before the night was over.

******************************

Michael let out a big sigh of contentment. Life was really great. He and Brian Kinney had been lovers for almost six months now and it just got better and better. They had both been a little frightened the first time they’d had full penetration type sex. Brian was scared he would hurt Michael like he had before and Michael was afraid he would lose complete control and try to rip his lover to pieces. It had been very gentle, very slow and so loving he’d had tears in his eyes when he finally came. Over the months they had talked about that first time and what had happened. They’d compared scars and actually Brian had come out on the losing end. Michael still had a small scar on his lower lip and a set of little dots over his left nipple where Brian had left an overly enthusiastic love bite. Brian had a scar on his forehead where Michael’s teeth had gone through his skin and several long, white scars on his back and buttocks where Michael had clawed his skin open trying to get him closer and deeper. They were never to understand exactly what happened. Brian thought it was because he realized he’d found his other half and he was afraid he would lose him which was exactly what happened.

They had gone to a clinic together the Monday before Brian left for his assignment in Europe and were both tested. When the results came back negative, the condoms stayed in the drawer. Brian didn’t want anything, not even a layer of lambskin to come between him and his love. Gus was ecstatic and they had to keep reminding him that he could not call Michael Dad at school nor could he hug him or in any way act as though his teacher were anything but that; his English teacher. In retaliation, Gus completely forgot the fact that he was a sophisticated 12 year old and just wallowed all over Michael when they were home.

The biggest hurdle they faced was the reaction of Michael’s friends when they found out which was right away since Michael had gone to dinner on a Friday and had not surfaced again until noon the following Monday. When he floated into his apartment, his friends took one look at him and the fight was on. They all descended on him, pulling his shirt open and examining the hickey’s on his neck. Everyone was talking at the same time and it took a while for all the fear and worry to be dissipated enough to listen to Michael’s story. Michael apologized for not calling them until late Saturday to tell them he would not be home but most of all for not telling them right away that he had found his incubus.

Emmet with his usual candor told him it was a damn good thing he hadn’t; they’d probably reported him kidnapped to the police and wouldn’t that have been a can of worms.

When he told them that his incubus was Brian Kinney, the father of Gus Kinney, there was complete silence in the room. Jimmy cleared his throat and said in almost a whisper, “Brian; he still has the same first name.”

Michael frowned at his friend and asked him what he was talking about.

“We think he’s the reincarnation of Brian Halloran and now you tell us his first name is Brian. It all fits.”

During the outburst that followed, Ted went back to his place and got the two photos. He brought them back and laid them down on the table in front of Michael. Michael picked the photos up and just stared at them in complete awe. He raised his eyes to his four friends. “My God, they are the spitting image of each other. No wonder I felt such a connection to him. I’d stared at his picture for months while I was doing the research and writing the book.”

Ted did a great imitation of a goldfish. “Wait a minute; what do you meant ‘writing the book’? Are you talking about ‘A Tangled Web’?”

Oh boy; busted!

“Yes Ted, I wrote the book. I’m J. Randall. I can’t believe Ma didn’t spill the beans after I bought her and Uncle Vic the new house. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner but I just didn’t want anyone to treat me different because I made some money. I wanted to just be your friend, nerdy Michael Novotny.”

It took some time after that before Ted got over his hurt feelings especially when he found out that Tracy had known almost from the beginning. It took a lot more time before his friends accepted Brian as his lover and future. But that was all in the past now and everyone would be at their house in an hour for their first dinner party as a couple.

*********************

Dinner was a huge success. Everyone had eaten until they almost burst. Debbie and Vic had come and for once, Debbie was on her best behavior. Although Michael had to admit, she really tried to reel herself in when she was around Gus. Like everyone else, she had fallen for the kid at first sight. Michael thought the best part of the evening was seeing Gus sitting on the arm of Vic’s chair with his thin, tanned arm around his uncle’s neck. There had been the same instantaneous love between Vic and Gus as there had been between Vic and Michael. It was almost uncanny how much they enjoyed each other’s company. Gus had left to spend the night with his best friend Jerry. They all had a big surprise when Tracy and Jimmy came together and shyly admitted they were dating. Michael had threatened Jimmy within an inch of his life if he ever hurt his girl.

Brian had kept them all in stitches telling them about his last trip to Italy and his encounter with some of the new Italian designers. Michael was really happy that even though the start had been rocky, in the end his friends had accepted Brian completely. They could do nothing less when they saw how happy he made Michael and let’s face it, how completely in love he was with their friend.

Emmet proposed a toast. “Here’s to rocky beginnings. May they always turn into happy endings.”

Everyone agreed they would drink to that.

Then Emmet got up and walked over to the entry hall table where he’d stashed a folder he’d brought with him to the party. “I have to say though, I don’t think this could have ended up any other way. It was written in the stars so to speak.”

Ted laughed at his crazy friend. “What the hell are you going on about now crazy person?”

“Well Teddy, you’re not the only person who knows how to Photo Shop. I’m pretty good at it myself and I’ve been doing some research of my own. Michael, in your book, you always referred to Jacob’s wife as the beautiful young woman or the beautiful young wife. I can’t imagine that a researcher as good as you wouldn’t have tracked down her birth records.”

“Well, Emmet thank you for the compliment and yes, I did track her down.”

“Why did you never refer to her by name?”

“I honestly don’t know, I think I used the ‘beautiful young woman’ and then sort of fell in love with the phrase and just kept it for the duration of the book. Why?”

“Do you know what her name was?”

“Yes, yes I do.”

“What was it?”

“It was a little unusual for those times. It was Mike..la.”

Michael’s voice trailed off.

“Come on Michael Charles, what was your heroine’s name?

“Her name was Mikela Charlene.”

Emmet opened his folder. He took out two photos and laid them down on the table for everyone to see. They all crowded around to see what he had. There were several ‘What the Hell’s’, a few ‘Oh no’s’ and a lot of general ‘Oh My God’s.

He’d taken a picture of Mikela Charlene Halloran Michael had taken from one of the local papers. She had been snapped at one of the large parties she’d thrown for her very wealthy husband. She had dark hair done up in a very elaborate style with feathers and pearls. Large chandelier pearl earrings brushed her bare shoulders. Her big dark eyes were staring directly out of the picture and they had shadows of sadness in them.

Next to the picture was the Photo Shop copy Emmet had created. Gone was the elaborate hair-do and the earrings replaced with a modern close cut hair-do. Her face had been elongated just slightly, she had a suggestion of an Adams apple and he had put her in a tight long sleeved jersey. She was Michael Charles Novotny.

Michael got the pictures out of Brian and put Brian Halloran next to Mikela Charlene. Then right below them he put Brian’s picture next to his. No one said a thing. There was nothing to say. The evidence was right there before their eyes.

Finally Brian reached out and took Michael’s hand in his. “Well at least this time I not only got the girl/guy, I got to have my son also.”

Michael leaned down and gave him a brief but loving kiss. He continued staring at the pictures.

“Next time Bri, you be the girl. Those corsets are pure murder and pregnancy ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.”

There was a bunch of strangled sounds in the room. Michael looked up and his mouth dropped open.

“Oh shit, tell me I didn’t just say that!”

The End


End file.
